Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow is ready for a new round of direct peace talks with Ukraine.
Speaking to Minsk reporters, Putin said Russian and Ukrainian officials were discussing the timing of a potential new meeting.
The Russian leader said the conditions for a potential ceasefire the Kremlin has previously rejected are expected to be on the agenda.
The war shows no signs of mitigation, as US-led international peace efforts have so far produced no breakthroughs. The last two talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have been short and there has been no progress in the peace agreement.
Ukraine hopes that the next step in peace negotiations will be a meeting between Ukrainian President Voldimi Zelensky and Putin, Ukrainian Defence Minister Rasm Umerov said.
However, given Putin’s recent comments, the proposal seems likely to be a non-starter. The Russian leader said the summit meeting should only be held after the main provisions of the peace agreement have been agreed.
Putin also reiterated his claim that Zelenskyy lost his legitimacy after his term of office expired last year. This is an allegation rejected by Kyiv and its allies.
Russia and Ukraine trade long-range drone attacks
Meanwhile, the Russian army fired 363 Sharp and Decoy drones and eight Ukrainian missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Friday, claiming that the Air Force had defeated all but four of the drones and six cruise missiles.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said 39 Ukrainian drones were defeated in several regions overnight. Both regions are located to the east of Ukraine.
Long-range drone strikes were a hallmark of the war in its fourth year. A race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and more deadly drones has transformed the war into a new weapons test site
The Ukrainian drone has taken apart some incredible feats. In the beginning of June, almost a third of Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was destroyed or damaged, and was damaged in a secret Ukrainian operation in which cheaply-built drones sneaked into Russian territory.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, around 359 incoming drones are intercepted or are packed electronically.
Ukraine stops Russia’s advance with Smie
On Thursday, Ukrainian top military commander General Oleksandr Silsky alleged that Ukrainian forces had halted Russia’s recent advance into the northeastern Smie region and stabilized the frontline near the Russian border.
General Silsky said the success of his defense at Smie prevented Russia from relocating around 50,000 troops, including the elite airborne and marine brigades, to other parts of the front line.
Ukraine is adopting new measures against escalation that combines Russian missile attacks and drone attacks, officials say. Instead of relying on ground-based mobile teams to shoot down Shaheds, Ukraine is deploying its developed interceptor drones.
Moscow has not commented on his claims yet. Before this, Russian forces had made slow and costly progress along parts of the frontline of about 1,000 kilometers, bombarding the Smie area with several attacks that killed civilians and destroyed buildings.
Ukrainian authorities say that the troops above them were heavily dependent on drones to hold back the Russian troops, just as US-led international efforts to mediate the ceasefire continued.
These months of discussions have failed, with the only concrete outcome being an agreement to carry out a series of prisoner-to-war exchanges.
