Ukraine-Russia battle newest: Kyiv says frontline place ‘strongest in a year’ as Zelensky calls for brand spanking new talks
Ukraine says its frontline position is now the strongest it has been in a year, a development it attributed to its superiority in drone warfare and air defence.
A new analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War said that Russia made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March, the first time Moscow has made such little progress in two and a half years.
“We have minimised the Russians’ advantage in manpower through the use of drones,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said.
“For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90 per cent of the targets that strike our cities… [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.”
This comes as Volodymyr Zelensky renewed calls for trilateral peace discussions with Russia despite US negotiators being preoccupied by the war in Iran.
The Kremlin has rebuffed the call for fresh talks between leaders, saying Vladimir Putin will only sit down with Zelensky to finalise an agreed peace deal.
Seven injured in Russian attack on apartment building in Ukraine’s Dnipro
A Russian air attack has triggered a series of fires in an apartment block in Ukraine’s southeastern city of Dnipro, injuring seven people, including two children, in the early hours today, officials said.
Regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said five people were being treated in hospital, including girls aged nine and 14.
Pictures posted on line by the governor showed several apartments ablaze and emergency crews using extendable ladders with a bucket to bring the flames under control.
Ganzha said fire also broke out in a store and a number of cars.
Turkey trying to revive Russia-Ukraine negotiations, Erdogan tells Nato chief
Turkey is making efforts to revive negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring together the leaders of the warring sides, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in a meeting in Ankara, the Turkish presidency said on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kyiv said it had asked Turkey, a Nato member, to host a leaders’ level meeting with Russia. Ankara has maintained good ties with both Ukraine and Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
“Erdogan said we were engaged, as Turkey, for the Ukraine-Russia war to end with peace, and that we are working to revive negotiations and start talks at leaders’ level,” the presidency said in a readout of the meeting.
The Turkish president also told Rutte that maintaining transatlantic ties was “indispensable”, but that Ankara expected European Nato allies to take more responsibility for transatlantic security, the presidency said.
“Erdogan said Turkey was working to end the Ukraine-Russia war through negotiations and reach lasting peace, just as it is trying with regards to Iran,” the presidency said in a separate statement.
Watch: Zelensky says Russia ceasefire unlikely until Iran crisis ‘closed’
Kremlin says Putin can meet Zelensky – but there’s a precondition
Russian president Vladimir Putin can only meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for the purpose of finalising agreements on the conflict, Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday.
“The main thing is the goal of this meeting. Why should they meet? Putin has said he is ready for a meeting in Moscow at any moment,” TASS news agency quoted Peskov as telling Russian state television.
“The main thing is that there should be a reason to meet, and the main thing is that the meeting should be productive. And it can only be for the purpose of finalising agreements,” he said.
Railway worker killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine
A train driver was killed in Ukraine after Russia attacked the country’s railway in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba said.
The attack targeted a sorting yard at the Zaporizhzhia-Live station in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and killed an assistant train driver.
The main driver was injured and is receiving treatment at a hospital, he said.
Kuleba called it “another proof of terrorism, Russia is at war against peaceful people, against those who were simply doing their job and keeping the country moving”.
Drones also targeted Ukraine’s main Black Sea port in the southern city of Odesa.
The strikes, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday, damaged the infrastructure of the Odesa port, including berths, warehouses, railway infrastructure and port operators’ facilities, Kuleba said in a statement on X.
Watch: Dua Lipa funds pickup truck for medical battalion in Ukraine
EU prepares finalisation of €90bn loan for Ukraine after Orban hurdle removed
EU ambassadors have approved the disbursement of a promised €90bn ($106bn) loan to Ukraine as well as a new package of sanctions against Russia after Hungary lifted its veto, the bloc’s Cypriot presidency said.
The European Union’s 27 member states are now expected to sign off on the deal by this afternoon, a spokesperson for the Cypriot presidency added.
The EU agreed last year on the loan to keep Ukraine liquid through 2026 and 2027. But Hungary then blocked the deal after Russia-friendly prime minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine of sabotaging the transit of Russian oil through a pipeline damaged by Russian attacks.
The spat had also delayed the new sanctions against Russia, which the EU had initially aimed to adopt to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
The stumbling block was finally removed when Hungary’s oil group MOL yesterday said it had been informed that the Ukrainian operator of the Druzhba pipeline was ready to resume crude oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia.
MOL said it expected the first shipments via the pipeline to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by Thursday at the latest. Both countries remain reliant on Russia for much of their energy.
Ukraine’s prospects for receiving the loan had already improved when Orban lost Hungary’s parliamentary election on 12 April. The leader of the winning party, Peter Magyar, has said he will no longer block the EU funds for Kyiv, though he is only expected to take power next month.
Ukraine asks Turkey to mediate war and host Zelensky-Putin talks
Ukraine has asked Turkey to host a meeting between president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The development was shared by Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha, saying that Ukraine is ready to meet Putin at any venue to end the war, except Belarus or Russia.
“We asked the Turks about it, we asked some other capitals,” Sybiha said, speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
“We addressed the Turks specifically,” he said. “But if another capital, besides Moscow and Belarus, organises such a meeting, we will go.”
On Friday, Sybiha told the Antalya Diplomacy Forum that Ukraine was ready to participate in any round of talks “regardless of format,” including meetings involving Zelensky, Putin, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or US president Donald Trump.
No gains for Russia as Ukraine holds ‘strongest’ frontline position in a year, says Sybiha
Ukraine’s frontline position is now “the strongest” it has been in a year, the country’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said, crediting its superiority in drone warfare and air defence.
“We have minimised the Russians’ advantage in manpower through the use of drones,” Sybiha said.
He added: “For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90 per cent of the targets that strike our cities… [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.”
A new analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War said that Russia made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March, the first time Moscow has made such little progress in two and a half years.
Longer Iran conflict could make it harder for Ukraine to secure missile defences, says Zelensky
Ukraine could face increased risks in securing US anti-missile defences if the war in Iran goes on for an extended period of time, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has cautioned.
Speaking to CNN, Zelensky said Ukraine received limited numbers of such weaponry because US production was limited, but so far it had experienced no disruption in supplies or in provision of intelligence.
Zelensky said Ukraine was able to secure US weaponry through the PURL programme under which Nato countries can finance the purchase of weapons for Kyiv.
“Through this programme, we can include and buy anti-ballistic missiles for Patriot systems and some other weapons which is very important for us. We don’t have this…with our European neighbours,” Zelensky told CNN in English.
“And of course, (given) the big challenge in the Middle East war and Iran, all these packages are at risk.”
The United States, he said, had supplied “only a small number. We had not too much. We understand why, because the production in the United States is not so big.”
“And if the war will continue or a ceasefire is delayed…(this) will be not good. And maybe we will have more risks with anti-ballistics.”
Source: independent.co.uk
