Star Metro - Ukraine proposes fresh peace talks with Russia next week

Two rounds of talks in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to result in any progress towards a ceasefire, instead yielding large-scale prisoner exchanges and deals to return the bodies of killed soldiers.

"Security Council Secretary Umerov... reported that he had proposed the next meeting with the Russian side for next week," Zelensky said in his evening address. "The momentum of the negotiations must be stepped up," he added.

Zelensky reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sitdown with Putin. "A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace – lasting peace," he said.

At talks last month, Russia outlined a list of hardline demands, including calls for Ukraine to cede more territory and to reject all forms of Western military support.

Kyiv dismissed them as unacceptable and at the time questioned the point of further negotiations if Moscow was not willing to make concessions.

The Kremlin said earlier this month it was ready to continue talks with Ukraine after US President Donald Trump gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal or face sanctions.

Trump also pledged to supply Kyiv with new military aid, sponsored by NATO allies, as its cities suffer ever-increasing Russian aerial attacks.

- Russian strikes kill three -

Russia has escalated long-range aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as frontline assaults and shelling over recent months, defying Trump's warning.

Most lately on Saturday, it had fired missile and drone strikes that killed three people across Ukraine.

Two people died after a Russian missile hit Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial hub, into which Russia's forces have recently advanced.

An earlier Russian salvo of 20 drones on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed at least one person overnight.

Russia had to suspend trains for about four hours overnight, causing extensive delays in the southern Rostov region, when it came under a Ukrainian drone attack that wounded one railway worker.

Moscow and Kyiv are menacing each other with swarms of cheap drones to overwhelm each other’s air defence, as the warring sides said on Saturday they had intercepted hundreds of drones, now launched in large amounts almost daily.

As part of the Istanbul agreements, Kyiv received 1,000 soldiers' bodies on Thursday, while Russia said it had received 19 from Ukraine.

The European Union on Friday agreed an 18th package of sanctions on Moscow that targets Russian banks and lowers a price cap on oil exports, in a bid to curb its ability to fund the war.

Y.Walker--SMC