(AFP) – Moscow firing ballistic missiles at Ukraine shortly after talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia’s Vladimir Putin showed the Kremlin’s position on the war had not changed, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. The Kremlin had said it was willing to restart trilateral talks with Kyiv and Washington next month, though dismissed new ideas brought by Witkoff — developed with European countries and Ukraine — as lacking substance.
Russia hit a dozen Ukrainian regions overnight, including Kyiv, killing at least two people and wounding 34, Zelensky said, adding that children were among those hurt. Residential houses, energy sites, a shopping mall, and a monastery had been damaged in Kyiv, where Russia has significantly intensified its strikes ahead of winter. Zelensky said the latest strikes began “almost immediately” after US President Donald Trump’s envoy Witkoff held hours-long talks with Putin in Saint Petersburg. Russia also said it had downed 808 Ukrainian drones fired overnight and that two people were wounded in Moscow.
Witkoff faced widespread criticism for calling Putin a “humanitarian” after Moscow released an elderly US citizen who had been jailed on charges of fighting for Ukraine as a “mercenary”. Trump sought an optimistic tone as his envoy returned from Russia, saying Wednesday that negotiators were “maybe now the closest we’ve been” to ending the war. But in Kyiv and European capitals, hopes for a breakthrough were slim, with many worried the White House was siding with Moscow.
“Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening,” Zelensky said. “Almost immediately after another round of talks, Russia launched a pointed attack. This means there has been no real change in its attitude towards everything that is happening.” He called on allies to keep up “real pressure” on Moscow and for more air defense supplies.
Three-way talks to resume – Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what it hoped would be a swift attack to topple Zelensky and seize land. Instead, it has become bogged down in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, millions forced from their homes, and much of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed.
Zelensky had met with Witkoff in Norway a day before the US-Russia talks in a meeting that came after days of spiraling Washington-Kyiv tensions. In recent days, Trump has blocked new sanctions on Russia, struck a deal to buy Russian diesel, and called for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced. Zelensky has backed resuming trilateral talks — several rounds of which over the last 18 months have failed to move the sides closer to a deal.
Russia is demanding Ukraine pull out of territory in the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls and wants sweeping political and military restrictions on the size of its army and Western alliances. Ukraine rejects the demands as tantamount to capitulation that would leave it exposed to a fresh attack. The Kremlin said Witkoff had briefed Putin on “some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv” from the Oslo meeting, but that “there wasn’t really much substance in them”.
Moscow also said that a summit between Trump, Putin, and China’s Xi was being prepared in China for next month, with Europeans and Ukraine worrying a deal could be struck over their heads. Shortly after hosting Witkoff on Wednesday, Putin held talks with Chinese premier Li Qiang, who was visiting Saint Petersburg. Witkoff said on social media the talks with Putin were “constructive” but that “there is still important work left to do”. Discussions would continue between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia at the technical level, he added.
Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine — either through a deal or on the battlefield.
– Genya SAVILOV
© 2024 AFP
