“WE ARE ENCOURAGED”
A day ahead of Zelenskyy’s announcement, Russia’s top economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with US officials in Florida for separate talks on the war.
Among those US officials were President Donald Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House Senior Advisor Josh Gruenbaum.
“We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said, though neither side released details of what was discussed.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to prevent the expansion of NATO – a war aim that Kyiv has called a pretext for an illegal land grab.
The conflict has since resulted in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead.
Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight and early Sunday killed at least two people and injured seven others, regional authorities said.
Among the attacks was a drone strike on a maternity hospital in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia that injured two women undergoing a medical examination, the region’s governor and rescuers said.
Ukraine’s defence minister on Sunday thanked Elon Musk after the US tycoon said efforts to stop Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks seemed to have worked.
“The first steps are already delivering real results … Thank you for standing with us. You are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people,” said Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.