Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that a meeting with Vladimir Putin remained “the most effective way forward” as the two sides exchanged prisoners and Ukraine marked 34 years since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. Peace hopes dimmed on Friday when Russia ruled out any immediate meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents but Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward”, renewing calls for a bilateral summit, as sought by US president Donald Trump. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov earlier criticised Zelenskyy for “demanding an immediate meeting at all costs” but the Ukrainian president, speaking at a ceremony attended by western officials including US envoy Keith Kellogg, vowed “to push Russia to peace”.
US vice-president JD Vance claimed Putin had made “significant concessions” towards a negotiated settlement, expressing confidence that progress was being made despite the lack of clear signs. Vance told NBC the Russian concessions included that Ukraine would receive security guarantees protecting against future Russian aggression. “They’ve recognised that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv,” he said. “That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has told Zelenskyy he backs Ukraine’s calls for robust security guarantees as part of any peace deal, saying Canada would not rule out sending troops under such a framework. Carney backed Ukraine’s calls for potential international participation, telling a joint press conference in Kyiv on Sunday: “In Canada’s judgment, it is not realistic that the only security guarantee could be the strength of the Ukrainian armed forces ... that needs to be buttressed and reinforced.” The two leaders also signed an agreement on drone co-production.
Zelenskyy was asked at the press conference about a Wall Street Journal report that said the Pentagon had for months been quietly blocking Ukraine’s use of the US-supplied Atacms missiles to hit targets deep inside in Russia. In response he said Kyiv had of late been using its own domestically produced long-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia, which are not cleared with Washington. “Lately we have not been discussing this issue with the United States.”
Russia said on Sunday that its forces had captured a new settlement in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region but Ukraine’s top commander said Kyiv’s troops had made gains elsewhere, recapturing three villages in eastern Donetsk region. The Russian defence ministry said it had taken Filia village in Dnipropetrovsk, while Ukraine made no acknowledgement that Filia had changed hands. Moscow says it has been making inroads into Dnipropetrovsk while Ukrainian forces have been pressing to recapture villages in the Donetsk region – the focal point of the Russian advance – and to prevent any further movement into Dnipropetrovsk. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, said on Telegram that Kyiv’s forces had retaken the Donetsk villages of Mykhailivka, Zelenyi Hai and Volodymyrivka. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
Moscow has accused Kyiv of launching dozens of drone attacks – including one that sparked a fire at a nuclear power plant – as Ukrainians marked independence day, reports Angelique Chrisafis. The drone attack on the Kursk plant in western Russia, 37 miles (60km) from the Ukraine border, caused damage to an auxiliary transformer and forced a 50% reduction in the operating capacity of a reactor, Russian authorities said. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the alleged attack. The fire sparked by the drone, which was shot down, had been extinguished and there were no casualties or increased radiation levels, the plant said on Sunday.
Ukraine and Russia said on Sunday they had each sent back 146 prisoners of war and civilians in the latest of a series of swaps. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the release of two Ukrainian journalists, Dmytro Khyliuk and Mark Kaliush, denouncing “their abductions and the abuse they suffered in detention”.
A Russian artillery strike killed a woman and wounded two residents in the town of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region. In the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, a Russian drone strike killed a woman, the governor said.
