Donald Trump’s administration has approved a new arms sale to Ukraine worth $105 million, to help it “maintain its existing Patriot missile air defense system.
After a tour that took him to Athens, Paris and Madrid, Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, with the aim of presenting a new “solution” to achieve peace. But Moscow said it would not send representatives to the talks, waiting for “information about what will actually be discussed”.
“This must be decided by them, the Constitution of Ukraine is very clear”: this is how Pope Leo, leaving Castel Gandolfo, responded to journalists who asked him whether peace with the surrender of territories was the right thing. “The problem is that if there is no ceasefire, if they do not reach a certain point of dialogue and find a way to resolve this problem, unfortunately many people die every day. We must demand peace, starting with a ceasefire and then dialogue,” added the Pope.
Debris after bombing
It is perhaps not a coincidence that, on the eve of the meeting, the Ukrainian General Staff stated that after several months it was again using American Atacms missiles, with a range of up to 300 kilometers, “for targeted strikes against military facilities on Russian territory”. This, he added, confirmed Ukraine’s “unwavering commitment to its sovereignty”, while Poland blamed Russia for two episodes of train sabotage that occurred at the weekend on its territory. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, speaking in Parliament, said that the perpetrators were “two Ukrainian nationals who have long operated and collaborated with Russian services” and that they fled to Belarus after the action. “It would be strange if they didn’t blame Russia first, Russophobia thrives there,” the Kremlin replied. “Pushing the end of the war closer with all our forces is Ukraine’s top priority,” Zelensky said of the scheduled talks in Turkey. Witkoff’s appearance before the presidents of Ukraine and Türkiye was significant, as he has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times in the Kremlin in recent months. For the Ukrainian leader, a Kiev official told AFP, the most important thing was “to get the United States involved again in peace efforts”. Therefore, the question is how to perfect the initiative both with the United States and with the Turkish side, which has so far organized and hosted, in Istanbul, the only round of negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations. But there is still no talk of resuming direct talks between Kiev and Moscow.
Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS
“For now these contacts are taking place without Russia’s participation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “at the moment there are no concrete plans” for new contacts between Putin and Witkoff after the talks in Turkey. Zelensky, who in Paris had received a letter of intent promising a future agreement on French arms supplies, including up to 100 Rafale fighter planes, in Madrid secured a new allocation of 615 million euros in military aid from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. However, Putin participated via video link in the keel-laying ceremony of the new nuclear-powered icebreaker ‘Stalingrad’, where he explained that Russia intends to “continue to strengthen” its position in the Arctic and define the country’s stated goals in the region as “historic”. “It is necessary… to ensure the development of the promising Arctic transport corridor from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok,” said the Kremlin leader, who later received Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Ukrainian National Guard soldiers fire firearms during training
In Ukraine, public television Suspilne said its offices in the Dnipropetrovsk region and Dnipro radio were hit and damaged by Russian drone strikes. Meanwhile on the night between Monday and Tuesday, a 17-year-old girl was killed and nine other people were injured in a missile attack in Kharkiv, according to what was announced by the region’s governor. However, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast region, authorities declared a state of emergency following an “unprecedented” Ukrainian attack on two thermoelectric power plants that left more than 65 percent of the population without electricity. Finally, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed responsibility for the capture of two other villages in eastern Ukraine: Nechaivka, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and Tseghelne, in the Kharkiv region.
Reproduction protected by law © Copyright ANSA
