Russia Ready For Peace Talks With Ukraine As Battles Rage
By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
MINSK/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – As battles raged, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia is still willing to hold a new round of peace talks with Ukraine, which Moscow invaded nearly 3.5 years ago.
His remarks at a news conference in Minsk, Belarus, came while Ukraine’s military said it struck four warplanes in counterattacks at an airbase in central Russia’s Volgograd region as part of a drive to hit Russian war assets.
On social media, it was reported that the strike hit the four SU-34 aircraft at the Marinovka base, located outside the city of Volgograd, approximately 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian officials stated that the operation was conducted by the military’s special operations branch, Ukraine’s SBU security service, and other military units.
“According to preliminary information, four aircraft were hit, specifically SU-34 planes, as well as technical-operational facilities where different warplanes are serviced and repaired,” the military said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Yet Ukraine suffered setbacks too, with a Russian missile reportedly killing at least five people and wounding 25 in the industrial city of Samar in Ukraine’s south-east on Friday.
SECOND STRIKE
It was the second strike on the city in three days, according to witnesses. At least four of the wounded were in “severe condition and taken to the hospital,” regional governor Serhiy Lysak noted on the social media platform Telegram.
Officials gave no immediate details on damage in the city, where an attack on an infrastructure facility on Tuesday reportedly killed two people.
In the Kherson region to the south, authorities urged residents on Friday to prepare for extended periods “without power” after “a Russian attack” hit a key energy facility.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin stated that the attack resulted in power outages in some regional settlements near the Russian forces’ front lines.
Russia also said its troops had captured the village of Nova Kruhlyakivka in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region. The report from the Russian state news agency TASS, citing the Defense Ministry, could not be independently verified on Friday.
However, with retaliatory strikes from Ukraine ongoing and the NATO military alliance still supporting Kyiv, Putin also seemed open to a new round of peace talks, likely to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.
He acknowledged that Russian and Ukrainian views on the path to peace are “diametrically opposed.” Still, he added that “negotiations are organized and conducted precisely with the aim of finding common ground.”
3,000 BODIES
Russia also wants to hand over “another 3,000 bodies of Ukrainians killed in action,” Putin said.
Both sides had already agreed upon the exchange of 6,000 dead.
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia began shortly after the fighting began in early 2022, but ended without a breakthrough. In May this year, the first direct consultations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations since 2022 began.
Delegates agreed on one of the largest prisoner exchanges of the war, at least 1,200 people on each side, as well as thousands of war dead.
Yet, Putin said he regretted that two rounds of peace talks had failed to bring a ceasefire. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators exchanged “memorandums” on how to end the war at talks in Istanbul this month. The Russian president confirmed Friday in Minsk: “As for the memorandums, as expected, nothing surprising happened … these are two absolutely contradictory memorandums.”
He also condemned NATO military alliance members’ “aggressive” pledge to increase their defence spending to 5% of the Gross Domestic Product.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump called NATO’s decision a “big win” for Western civilisation. Putin stressed Friday that despite his frustration over these developments, Russia was ready to hold a new round of peace talks with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul. However, he cautioned that the venue and date had not yet been agreed upon.
More than a million people are believed to have been killed and injured in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
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