The Ukrainian army is battling an attempted Russian breakthrough in the Sumy region, it has said, after reports Moscow forcibly moved 50 people from a border village there. That marks a renewed Russian advance in the part of the region largely spared from intense ground fighting since Ukraine regained land there in a 2022 counteroffensive. “Fighting is currently ongoing in the village of Grabovske,” Ukraine’s joint taskforce said on Sunday, adding the troops were “making efforts to drive the occupiers back into Russian territory”. It also refuted media reports saying Moscow’s troops were in the neighbouring Ryasne village. Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian rights ombudsman said Russian troops forcibly moved about 50 people from Grabovske to Russia. There was no official comment from Russia. On Saturday, the Russian army said it had captured the village of Vysoke, a short distance from Grabovske.
US and Ukrainian envoys issued a joint statement on Sunday saying talks in Miami had been “productive and constructive” but did not announce any apparent breakthrough in efforts to end the Russian invasion. “Over the last three days in Florida, the Ukrainian delegation held a series of productive and constructive meetings with American and European partners,” Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said in separate statements on X on Sunday. Witkoff posted: “Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability and long-term prosperity. Peace must be not only a cessation of hostilities, but also a dignified foundation for a stable future.”
The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US were on the cards. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a day earlier that Washington had mooted the trilateral format, which would mark Moscow and Kyiv’s first face-to-face negotiations in half a year, but the Ukrainian president expressed scepticism that they would lead to progress. Russian news agencies reported Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, as telling reporters: “At present, no one has seriously discussed this initiative, and to my knowledge it is not in preparation.” Russian representatives have also been in southern Florida for discussions with the US over Ukraine, with a Kremlin envoy saying on Saturday that the talks had been pressing on “constructively”.
A Ukrainian drone attack damaged two vessels and two piers and sparked a fire in a village on the Black Sea coast in Russia’s Krasnodar region, regional authorities said on Monday. All crew on the ships at the Volna terminal on the Black Sea had been safely evacuated, the Krasnodar region’s operational headquarters said on Telegram. The damage led to a fire spreading up to 1,500 sq metres, authorities said. The fire was still raging by 0200 GMT.
Keir Starmer discussed efforts to achieve a “just and lasting end” to the war in a Sunday call with Donald Trump, the British prime minister’s office said in a statement after the Florida talks. “The two leaders began by reflecting on the war in Ukraine,” Starmer’s office said in a readout of the call, adding they had discussed the work of the so-called “coalition of the willing” countries that have pledged to support Kyiv.
Russia has renewed its criticism of efforts by Europe and Ukraine to amend US proposals to end the war in Ukraine, saying they did not improve prospects for peace. Rory Carroll reports that Putin aide Ushakov told reporters on Sunday that the proposed tweaks to Washington’s plan could prolong the conflict. “I am sure that the proposals that the Europeans and Ukrainians have made or are trying to make definitely do not improve the document and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” Ushakov said. He added that he had not seen the exact proposals and that his criticism was “not a forecast”.
US intelligence reports continue to warn that Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, Reuters reported six sources familiar with intelligence as saying, even as negotiators seek an end to the war that would leave Russia with far less territory. The most recent of the reports dates from late September, one of the sources said. The intelligence contradicts the Russian leader’s denials that he is a threat to Europe. “The intelligence has always been that Putin wants more,” Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the House intelligence committee, told Reuters. “The Europeans are convinced of it. The Poles are absolutely convinced of it. The Baltics think they’re first.”
