Russia launches smallest nighttime assault on Ukraine in months in run-up to attainable peace talks | EUROtoday

Russia launched 10 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine in nighttime assaults, the Ukrainian air power stated Tuesday, within the smallest drone bombardment this yr because the warring international locations put together for attainable peace talks in Turkey.

The Kremlin hasn’t instantly responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s problem for Russian chief Vladimir Putin to fulfill him in particular person on the negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday.

Zelenskyy is not going to be assembly with any Russian officers in Istanbul apart from Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, stated Tuesday on a YouTube present run by outstanding Russian journalists in exile.

Lower-level talks would quantity to easily “dragging out” any peace course of, Podolyak stated. European leaders have lately accused Putin of dragging his ft in peace efforts whereas he makes an attempt to press his larger military’s battlefield initiative and seize extra Ukrainian land.

Russia successfully rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders from Monday, when it fired greater than 100 drones at Ukraine. Putin as an alternative provided direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted a Russian delegation can be in Istanbul with out preconditions.

Both sides are making ready a spring-summer marketing campaign on the battlefield, the place a battle of attrition has killed tens of hundreds of troopers on either side alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) entrance line.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington assume tank, stated Monday that Russia is “quickly replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative.”

Russia shunned the ceasefire proposal tabled by the U.S. and European leaders however provided direct talks with Ukraine.

Putin has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities, particularly Zelenskyy himself, saying his time period expired final yr. Under Ukraine’s structure, it’s unlawful for the nation to carry nationwide elections whereas it’s underneath martial legislation, because it now’s.

In an extra complication, a Ukrainian decree from 2022 guidelines out negotiations with Putin.

But the U.S. has been making use of stiff stress on either side since President Donald Trump got here to energy with a promise to finish the battle.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday with the highest diplomats from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland, who had been assembly in London, to evaluate “the way forward for a ceasefire and path to peace in Ukraine,” spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated.

Those European international locations had pledged additional sanctions on Russia if it didn’t adjust to a full ceasefire that Ukraine had accepted from Monday, however they made no announcement of further punitive measures.

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Follow AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine