KYIV: Russia rained missiles and drones overnight on Kyiv, killing six people, authorities said Tuesday, as three people died in Russia’s Rostov region in massive Ukrainian strikes.
The heightened attacks came after US President Donald Trump initially gave Kyiv until November 27 — the American holiday of Thanksgiving — to respond to his proposal to end the fighting, a timeline and blueprint that European leaders have baulked at.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said four people died and at least three were wounded in the Svyatoshynsky district. Emergency services earlier said two people died in a strike on an apartment building in the eastern Dniprovsky quarter.
Before dawn Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones — one of the highest figures reported.
In Russia’s Rostov region, acting governor Yuri Sliusar said at least three people were killed, adding: “Tonight’s enemy attack brought great grief.”
In the Krasnodar frontier region, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev called the overnight bombardment “one of the Kyiv regime’s most sustained and massive attacks.”
Kyiv and its allies spent the weekend hammering away at Washington’s 28-point plan, which initially hewed close to Russia’s hard-line demands, requiring the invaded country to cede territory, cut its military and pledge never to join NATO.
An updated version, aiming to “uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty,” was thrashed out over the weekend at emergency talks in Geneva.
Countries supporting Kyiv are due to hold a video call Tuesday to discuss the state of the plan.
‘Russia will not ease pressure’
“We must be cognizant that Russia will not ease its pressure on Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Zelensky has described his country as being in a “critical moment,” saying Ukraine risked losing either its “dignity” or Washington as an ally.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who welcomed the original US plan to end the fighting, has threatened to seize more Ukrainian territory if Kyiv walks away from the negotiations.
Russia’s military already occupies around a fifth of Ukraine — much of it ravaged by years of fighting.
Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab.
Tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Revised plan
Ukrainian, American and European officials met in Switzerland Sunday after the US proposal to halt the war was widely criticized as requiring too much capitulation.
A joint US-Ukrainian statement after the weekend talks announced an “updated and refined peace framework.”
While the latest draft has not been published, the White House hailed it as progress, and the joint statement affirmed “any future agreement must fully uphold Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
Kyiv’s delegation said the latest draft “already reflects most of Ukraine’s key priorities.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had thrown doubt on the ability to strike a deal by Trump’s November 27 deadline, saying that discussions would be a “lengthy, long-lasting process.”
The United States had bypassed Europe with the original plan, and many EU governments were unsettled by the prospect of ending the war on Moscow’s terms.
The White House has pushed back on criticism that Trump was favoring Russia.
“The idea that the United States of America is not engaging with both sides equally in this war to bring it to an end is a complete and total fallacy,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
A senior official told AFP the United States had pressed Ukraine to accept the proposal.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington did not directly threaten to cut off aid if Kyiv rejected its proposals, but that Ukraine understood this was a distinct possibility.
Ukraine, Russia trade deadly strikes as negotiators hammer at peace deal
https://arab.news/yysb4
Ukraine, Russia trade deadly strikes as negotiators hammer at peace deal
- The heightened attacks came after US President Donald Trump initially gave Kyiv until November 27 to respond to his proposal
Putin says there are points he can’t agree to in the US proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine
- He emphasized that Russia will fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region
- “All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a US plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.
US President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner planned to meet later Thursday with the Ukrainian delegation led by Rustem Umerov following the Americans’ discussions with Putin at the Kremlin, but there was no immediate confirmation whether that meeting took place.
The meeting at the Shell Bay Club, a golf property developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach, was tentatively set to begin at 5 p.m. EST, according to an official familiar with the logistics. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly because the meeting has not yet been formally announced and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.
Speaking to the India Today television channel before he landed Thursday in New Delhi for a state visit, Putin said the American proposals discussed at the Kremlin meeting were based on earlier discussions between Russia and the US, including his meeting with Trump in Alaska in August, but also included new elements.
“We had to go through practically every point, which is why it took so much time,” he said. “It was a meaningful, highly specific and substantive conversation. Sometimes we said, ‘Yes, we can discuss this, but with that one we cannot agree.’“
Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from the marathon session confident that Putin wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin said the initial US 28-point peace proposal was trimmed to 27 points and split into four packages. He refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.
The Russian leader praised Trump’s peace efforts, noting that “achieving consensus among conflicting parties is no easy task.”
“To say now what exactly doesn’t suit us or where we could possibly agree seems premature, since it might disrupt the very mode of operation that President Trump is trying to establish,” Putin said.
He emphasized that Russia will fulfill the goals it set and take all of the eastern Donetsk region. “All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said.
European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as US officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump’s peace drive.
French President Emmanuel Macron met in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, seeking to involve him in pressuring Russia toward a ceasefire. Xi, whose country has provided strong diplomatic support for Putin, did not say respond to France’s call, but said that “China supports all efforts that work toward peace.”
Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.
A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.
Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.
Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.
Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.
Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said.
