As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to Washington, DC with the support of European leaders for high-stakes peace talks with US President Donald Trump that could decide Ukraine’s future and its fate in the ongoing war, which is now in its fourth year, at least 12 people have been killed in Russian attacks on major Ukrainian cities.
Authorities in the northeastern city of Kharkiv reported on Monday that an entire family, including a toddler and a 16-year-old, were among the seven people killed in an overnight drone strike on a residential neighborhood. Six children were also hurt in the attack, which also left 20 people injured.
In attacks carried out by Russian forces in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region, where some of the fiercest fighting is ongoing and where Russian President Vladimir Putin feels more comfortable, wants Ukraine to leave Kyiv’s third-department.
According to Governor Ivan Fedorov, 17 people were hurt in an attack in Zaporizhzhia, a city in the southeast. The southeast of Sumy and the southeast of Odesa were also targeted by Russian air raids.
Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight, according to the air force of Ukraine, with 140 drones and four missiles downed.
Russia has been putting more pressure on Ukraine. More than 300 civilians have been killed and 2,600 drone attacks have been reported in Ukraine, according to the UN monitoring mission’s report on the country. This is the highest rate since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military announced on Monday that its drones had struck an oil-pumping station in the Tambov region, which is 1,923 kilometers (1, 195 miles) away from Ukraine, forcing the Druzhba pipeline to be closed for business.
“The facility caught fire as a result of the strike,” the statement read. The General Staff of the Ukrainian military stated in a statement that oil flowed completely through the Druzhba main oil pipeline.
Four people were hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack in Belgorod, Russia, despite Russian authorities reporting shooting down hundreds of drones and munitions.
negotiating the end of the conflict
Zelenskyy described the most recent attacks on Ukraine as “demonstrative and cynical.” Putin will carry out demonstrative killings in order to pressure Ukraine and Europe and to degrade diplomatic efforts, he wrote on X.
According to Charles Stratford, a journalist from Kyiv, Zelenskyy saw the killing of civilians as a means of imposing more restrictions on Ukraine by compulsion to accept an unfavorable peace deal.
This demonstrates how much pressure Zelenskyy is currently facing as he prepares for what might be the most crucial diplomatic effort to end this conflict, according to Stratford.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Zelenskyy were scheduled to meet with Trump for talks on Monday at the White House. Possible land concessions and NATO-like security guarantees, which Ukraine needs in order to reach a peace agreement with Russia, are on the table for discussion.
Zelenskyy has so far refused to take into account the possibility of ceding Ukrainian territory in order to bring about peace. Additionally, the Ukrainian Constitution forbids it.
Following the summit between Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday, which had no concrete resolution to the Ukraine war, the meeting comes at a later time.
Sean Bell, a military analyst, said he had no hope that the Washington, DC talks would lead to a peace agreement either. According to Bell, “Potr has no appetite for negotiations unless he has met his goals,” is the harsh reality.
“Facebook has declared that if President Zelenskyy is giving everything, that is a surrender.” He continued, “Zelenskyy can’t do that.” Bell also stated that he did not anticipate Russia to sign a deal involving security guarantees akin to those offered by NATO for Ukraine.
Bell claimed that Trump’s stringent tariffs on Russian oil and gas buyers like India were the only way to bring the conflict to a head. The US president threatened to impose these secondary sanctions, but he has so far stopped putting additional strain on Russia’s export earnings from fossil fuels.
The killing will continue, Bell said, citing Trump’s decision to avoid doing so.
Source: Aljazeera
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