Kyiv
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Russia launched considered one of its largest aerial assaults this month on Ukraine in a single day, killing a minimum of three individuals and injuring a minimum of 17 others, based on President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Ukraine’s chief acquired his first face-to-face briefing together with his negotiating staff on their arrival again from talks within the US.
“Russia has been carrying out a massive attack on Ukraine,” Zelensky posted on X, including that greater than 650 drones and over 30 missiles had been used within the strike. Some 13 areas, about half the nation, got here below attack, he mentioned.
In the western area of Zhytomyr, a 4-year-old baby was killed after a Russian drone struck a residential constructing, Zelensky mentioned.
Meanwhile, emergency energy cuts had been imposed throughout the nation with some areas left virtually fully with out energy because of the attack, based on Ukraine’s vitality ministry.
The newest bombardment comes after a recent spherical of talks to finish the warfare wrapped over the weekend in Miami, the place Ukrainian and Russian officers met individually with a US delegation led by White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump.
On the bottom, Kyiv’s troops retreated from the city of Siversk in japanese Ukraine on Tuesday, based on the nation’s armed forces, as Russian forces pushed via “active offensive operations.”
Ukrainian solders withdrew from the realm in Donetsk to “save the lives of our soldiers and maintain the combat capability of our units,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces mentioned in an announcement.
“The invaders were able to advance thanks to their significant numerical superiority and constant pressure” regardless of “difficult weather conditions,” Ukraine’s Armed Forces added.
Moscow broke via swathes of the town this week after a lightning offensive alongside japanese frontlines over the summer season. Even so, Ukrainian troops have maintained “fire control” of Siversk and Russian models are “being blocked,” the nation’s armed forces mentioned Tuesday.
“All measures are being taken to reduce the offensive potential of enemy units,” the assertion mentioned.
Ukraine’s delegation arrived again in Kyiv in a single day and delivered what Zelensky known as a “detailed report” of the talks.
“Not everything is perfect so far, but this plan is in place,” Ukraine’s chief wrote on X in a single day, referring to the 20-point doc, which types the core of an settlement framework between Ukraine and the US.
In addition to the core plan, which embrace safety ensures “between us, the Europeans, and the United States,” Zelensky wrote, there is a further doc detailing bilateral safety ensures between Ukraine and the US. On this latter level, he mentioned, “we are very close to a real outcome.”
Along with safety ensures, earlier rounds of talks have additionally highlighted the centrality of territory in negotiations, and Zelensky made no remark in statements in a single day on any readiness to debate potential land swaps.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a transparent indication that he is not going to compromise on his calls for for Ukraine to cede territory within the Donbas, regardless of the Trump administration’s intensifying push for peace.
In an obvious try to tamp down expectations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised the Russian newspaper Izvestia on Monday that talks between Russian and US officers over the weekend shouldn’t be thought of as a breakthrough.
“This is a working process. We already said that first there needs to be quite a meticulous work process at the expert level,” Peskov mentioned.
Witkoff, who led the US delegation on the Miami talks, mentioned Russia “remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine” after assembly with Kirill Dmitriev, the top of the Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) and a Kremlin particular envoy, on the weekend.
He made a equally worded assertion after talks with the Ukrainian delegation. “Ukraine remains fully committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace,” Witkoff mentioned, whereas noting that their assembly was “constructive” and included discussions concerning the “sequencing of next steps.”
Away from the Florida talks, Zelensky put Ukraine’s navy on alert for potential Russian assaults round Christmas whereas declaring the dearth of air defenses out there to defend the nation.
The Ukrainian chief mentioned the newest attack “sends an extremely clear signal about Russia’s priorities.”
It was an attack “ahead of Christmas, when people simply want to be with their families, at home, and safe,” he mentioned. “An attack carried out essentially in the midst of negotiations aimed at ending this war.”
NCS’s Hira Humayun, Nina Subkhanberdina, Tim Lister and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.