KYIV, Ukraine — Not less than seven folks had been killed after Russia launched a barrage of drones throughout Ukraine in a single day on Sunday, in response to native Ukrainian officers and emergency providers.
The assaults, together with on the capital, Kyiv, got here forward of ceasefire negotiations in Saudi Arabia wherein Ukraine and Russia are anticipated to carry oblique U.S.-mediated talks Monday to debate a pause in long-range assaults concentrating on power services and civilian infrastructure.
The Ukrainian delegation is anticipated to fulfill with U.S. officers in Saudi Arabia a day forward of the oblique talks, Ukraine’s President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy mentioned. Ukraine is planning to ship technical groups to debate the main points of the partial ceasefire.
Requested about issues that Russian President Vladimir Putin could also be trying past Ukraine and will press farther into Europe, even when Russia is awarded territory inside Ukraine now, Witkoff mentioned he has been requested his opinion on what Putin’s motives are on a big scale.
“I simply have said that I just don’t see that he wants to take all of Europe,” he mentioned. “This is a much different situation than it was in World War II. In World War II, there was no NATO. You have countries that are armed there. I take him at his word in this sense. And I think the Europeans are beginning to come to that belief, too. … The agenda is stop the killing, stop the carnage, let’s end this thing.”
Requested whether or not he was satisfied that Putin wished peace, Witkoff mentioned: “I feel that he wants peace.”
Russia launched 147 drones throughout Ukraine in a single day, in response to the Ukrainian Air Pressure. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 97, and 25 others didn’t attain targets because of Ukrainian countermeasures. The assaults struck the Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesa and Donetsk areas, in addition to the capital, Kyiv.
Three folks, together with a 5-year-old little one, had been killed and 10 others had been injured in a drone assault on Kyiv, town’s army administration mentioned. Prolonged sounds of explosions had been heard throughout the Ukrainian capital within the early hours because the air raid blared for over 5 hours. Russian drones and particles from shot-down drones, which had been flying at decrease altitudes to evade air defenses, fell on residential buildings.
Residents in Kyiv surveyed the injury performed to their properties and neighborhoods on Sunday morning. Many had been disparaging of the upcoming ceasefire talks, pointing to the burned-out properties destroyed within the drone assault, saying these had been extra indicative of Russia’s true intentions.
In an outdated multistory constructing on Kyiv’s left financial institution that was broken within the in a single day assault, Dmytro Zapadnya, 37, mentioned he had no religion in Russia upholding any ceasefire settlement.
“There is no point in signing anything (with Russians), because it will not be worth the cost of paper where you put this signature,” he mentioned.
Elsewhere, 4 folks had been killed in Russian assaults on Ukraine’s Donetsk area, regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin mentioned, together with three who died in a strike on the frontline city of Dobropillya.
