Vladimir Putin’s Russia vowed to inflict ‘maximum defeat on the ground’ for Ukraine as it unleashed a huge attack with 181 drones and four missiles.
Former president Dmitry Medvedev also claimed Donald Trump would restart military aid to Kyiv once Ukraine signs a deal giving America access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
“Russia is advancing. The enemy is resisting and has not yet been defeated,” said Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
“Inflicting maximum defeat on the enemy ‘on the ground’ remains our main task today.”
Warring parties normally seek to gain as much territory as they can before peace talks start so they are in the strongest possible position.
Britain has stressed the need for the West to increase its backing for Ukraine given the prospects of a peace agreement to end Putin’s three-year war.
But Trump has been accused of “strengthening the hand” of Putin by pausing military aid to Kyiv following his spectacular bust-up with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House’s Oval Office.
Trump will consider restoring aid to Ukraine if peace talks are arranged and confidence-building measures are taken, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday.
Sir Keir Starmer is seeking to act as an “honest broker” to bring America, Europe and Ukraine together on peace moves but the Government has warned that a peace deal is still a long way off.
On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military said Russia used 181 drones and four missiles in an overnight attack on the country.
The air force shot down 115 drones and another 55 did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic countermeasures, according to a military statement. It did not specify what happened to the remaining 11 drones.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in his three-year war, with Ukraine also suffering high casualties, with thousands, if not tens of thousands of civilians killed.
Doubts remain over whether Putin wants a peace deal, with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy having previously argued that there was little or no evidence that he does.
Trump caught European capitals by surprise with a phone call to Putin to discuss a possible peace deal, following his return to the White House in January.
But America has faced criticism for the way Trump has approached the possible peace talks, with former Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace even saying there was the “stench” of Nazi appeasement.
Trump has launched astonishing attacks on Mr Zelensky, branding him a “dictator” and claiming he is not popular in Ukraine despite polls suggesting otherwise.
The Ukrainian president has sought to mend fences with the US president after their clash and has said he is ready to sign a deal to give America access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for its support in the war.
Mr Zelensky is also seeking a security guarantee from Trump, as a “backstop” to a peace-keeping force in Ukraine if the war ends led by Britain and France.
But so far the US president has refused to commit to such a security pledge.
