MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Sunday downplayed expectations of a rapid resolution to the Ukraine conflict, saying talks were just beginning and that "difficult negotiations" lay ahead. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are to hold separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia over the next 48 hours as President Donald Trump pushes for a rapid end to more than three years of fighting. Despite both sides proposing different plans for temporary ceasefires, attacks have continued unabated. A Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital killed three civilians overnight.
"We are only at the beginning of this path," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state TV on Sunday, ahead of the talks in Saudi Arabia. He said there were many outstanding "questions" and "nuances" over how a potential ceasefire might be implemented. Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian call for a full and immediate 30-day pause, proposing instead to halt attacks only on energy facilities. "There are difficult negotiations ahead," Peskov said in the interview, published on social media.
Originally scheduled to take place simultaneously in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the talks on a partial truce could now happen one after the other. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian and US delegations would meet on Sunday, without giving further details on what appeared to be a change in format.
Peskov said Russia's "main" focus in its talks with the United States would be discussing a possible resumption of a 2022 Black Sea grain deal that ensured safe navigation for Ukrainian agricultural exports in the Black Sea. "On Monday we mainly intend to discuss President Putin's agreement to resume the so-called Black Sea initiative, and our negotiators will be ready to discuss the nuances around this problem," Peskov said. Moscow pulled out of the deal in 2023, accusing the West of failing to uphold its commitments to ease sanctions on Russia's own exports of agricultural products and fertilisers.
A senior Ukrainian official previously said that Kyiv would propose a broader ceasefire, covering attacks on energy facilities, infrastructure and naval strikes. Both sides launched fresh drone attacks on the eve of the negotiations. Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack killed three civilians in the capital Kyiv, including a five-year-old girl and her father. An 11-month-old child was among some 10 also wounded in the strikes on Kyiv, officials said on social media.
Reporters in the capital saw emergency workers treating the wounded in the early hours of Sunday in front of damaged residential buildings, hit in the strike. The Kyiv city prosecutor's office published photos showing a multi-story building engulfed in flames. Deadly strikes on the well-protected capital are rarer than elsewhere in the country. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 147 drones at the country in the latest barrage.
Zelensky urged his country's allies to put fresh pressure on Russia. "New decisions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to bring an end to these strikes and this war," he posted on social media. The head of Zelensky's office, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram: "Russia is not ceasing fire. Putin wants to kill more civilians. This must be stopped." Russia said it had repelled nearly 60 Ukrainian drones overnight and announced one man killed in the southern Rostov region when his car caught fire from falling debris.
Living in the gutted-out eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, Maryna has learned to recognise the sound of the devastating Russian glide bombs that have pounded her city for months. Equipped with wings to help them glide over dozens of kilometres, the bombs are part of an arsenal developed by Russia to let it hit deeper into Ukrainian territory and stretch the front line. "Six people didn't get back up. There was blood everywhere," she said.
Kostyantynivka used to be relatively sheltered, lying a dozen kilometres from the front line. But Russian forces are now pounding the city with the cheaply made bombs. Usually made from Soviet stocks and modernised with satellite control systems, each can carry up to a tonne of explosives. The glide bombs themselves are mostly impossible to intercept for the Ukrainian airforce, whose only option is to try to shoot down the planes. Throughout the three-year war, Russia has used them to devastating effect — razing cities like Chasiv Yar to the ground and obliterating Ukrainian defensive positions across the front line. — AFP
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