Ukraine’s president has accused Russia of being insincere about making peace as he reported an attack by 117 drones, before he headed to Paris for a discussion with EU and Nato leaders about establishing a post-conflict security force.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that launching nationwide strikes after negotiations over maritime and energy ceasefires was proof of Russia’s true intentions, though the Kremlin insisted the US-brokered talks were proceeding constructively.
Four people were reported killed and six injured across Ukraine by regional governors overnight, while the country’s air force said it shot down 56 of the 117 incoming drones and another 48 were decoys that caused no damage.
“Last night, there were another 117 proofs in our skies of how Russia continues to drag out this war,” Zelenskyy posted on X. “Launching such large-scale attacks after ceasefire negotiations is a clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace.”
Russia’s defence ministry countered by saying that Ukraine had sought to strike Russian energy facilities overnight, targeting a gas storage site in occupied Crimea and electricity transmission in the border region of Bryansk.
“Thus, the Kyiv regime, while continuing to damage the Russian civilian energy infrastructure, is actually doing everything it can to thwart the agreements reached” by negotiators from Russia and the US, the Russian ministry said, though it was not immediately possible to verify the claims.
Parallel talks between Russia and the US and the US and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this week had reached agreement on implementing a ceasefire in the Black Sea and a 30-day halt to strikes on energy targets already agreed to in principle by the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
But the Kremlin emphasised that its agreement to a ceasefire was conditional on the US helping ease access to its exports of food and fertiliser, and the reconnection of state agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the Swift payments system. The US said it was studying the Russian request.
At a briefing on Wednesday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, praised the talks. “We are satisfied with how pragmatically and constructively our dialogue is developing and by how it is yielding results,” he said.
A list of Russian and Ukrainian targets to be covered by the energy moratorium had been agreed with the help of US negotiators, Peskov added, a point that had been announced by Zelenskyy the day before. Ukraine’s leader said the energy ceasefire should be ready to come into force from today.
Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris and attend a meeting of political and military delegations from 31 countries led by France and the UK, represented by the prime minister, Keir Starmer. Together they are trying to stitch together a “reassurance force” to provide security to Ukraine in the event of a negotiated armistice or peace.
Details about who will participate and the size of the force have been sparse with speculation that it could contain 10,000 to 30,000 troops plus fighter jet policing to secure Ukraine’s air space, as well as maritime patrols de-mining the Black Sea to protect grain exports.
European sources have stressed that the force would not police or be based closed to the current front lines, but the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Ihor Zhovkva, said the reassurance force had to be strong enough to fend off any Russian aggression, if necessary.
Though Zhovka said Kyiv had to “first and foremost” rely on its own military, members of any reassurance force had to show a “readiness to fight” and “to be ready to be engaged in the real combat” and recognise that defending Ukraine was “an inevitable part of European security”.
Donald Trump has been pressing for a full end to the fighting in Ukraine, declaring on the campaign trail before his election that he could end the war in 24 hours, though earlier this month he described his own statement as “a little bit sarcastic”.
So far the parallel negotiations that took place in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, have brought relatively modest results – and raised questions over whether a full ceasefire is possible given the lack of trust between Moscow and Kyiv and ongoing fighting.
Overnight, the US president even questioned whether Putin was committed to a peace deal at this stage. “I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet,” Trump said in a TV interview.
“I’ve done it over the years, you know; I don’t want to sign a contract, I want to sort of stay in the game, but maybe I don’t want to do it, quite … I’m not sure. But no, I think Russia would like to see it end, and I think Zelenskyy would like to see it end at this point,” he told Newsmax.
Ukraine’s strategy is to engage constructively in the talks, showing it is ready to agree to intermediate ceasefire proposals, and switch the onus on peace to Russia in the belief the Kremlin will raise more pre-conditions.
Moscow, however, appears focused on what it can obtain from the US, with Trump acknowledging the US had had discussions about a division of Ukrainian territory with the Kremlin. No such negotiations had been had with Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday evening, during a panel interview in Paris with journalists from across Europe, Zelenskyy said he was “very grateful” for bipartisan support from the US, but he feared some were “under the influence of Russian narratives”. “We can’t agree to those narratives,” he added.
