Ukraine war briefing: Air ceasefire talk ahead of Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
Romania summons Russian ambassador after shooting down three drones; Zelenskyy to meet Andy Burnham in UK. What we know on day 1,615 Ukrainian and US
Romania summons Russian ambassador after shooting down three drones; Zelenskyy to meet Andy Burnham in UK. What we know on day 1,615 Ukrainian and US officials have discussed a proposal to offer Russia an air ceasefire, the Reuters news agency has reported, citing a Ukrainian source. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to meet Donald Trump, the US president, in Washington on Tuesday. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Sunday that Russia considered it premature to comment on any such ceasefire proposal. “We do not know how credible these reports are or where they come from. These are newspaper reports and nothing more. Therefore, it is premature to comment on them at this stage,” the Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying. “We have heard statements that some new formulas may be possible. We still need to learn more about them … What happens next will depend on how closely they correspond to our interests.” Romania said it was summoning Russia’s ambassador after the Nato member’s military shot down a third drone in as many days. A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down the drone over the Black Sea, five minutes after it entered the country’s airspace, said Romania’s defence minister, Radu Miruță.
The foreign minister, Oana Țoiu, condemned “repeated violations”. The Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, said that according to an investigation, a drone shot down on Friday was a “ Shahed model used by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine”. Investigations into drones shot down on Saturday and Sunday continued, he said. The Golden Leo, an international cargo vessel, sank off the coast of Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Sunday, a week after Ukrainian officials said it had been struck by Russian forces. Nine crew members were killed in the attack while eight were evacuated to safety. The ship had left the port of Chornomorsk with a cargo of corn when it was shelled by Russian forces on 19 July. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had struck Ukrainian ports and shipping. Russia claimed the container terminal at Chornomorsk, near Odesa, handled “military cargoes”. Russia launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said. In the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people – including a nine-year-old child – and wounding 25, emergency services said.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov. A glide bomb attack killed one person and wounded six in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, said the regional governor, Ivan Fedorov. In Kyiv, a fire broke out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multi-storey apartment block in a central district after a missile attack, said the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Three people were wounded. In Sloviansk, Donetsk region, the national oil and gas company Naftogaz said two of its employees died in a Russian attack while trying to help residents affected by an earlier strike. Russia said areas of Ukraine under Moscow’s control had also come under attack, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Horlivka. Twelve people, including two children, were injured in drone attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, close to Ukraine’s border, regional authorities said early on Monday. Ukraine denies targeting civilians. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will become Andy Burnham’s first overseas visitor as prime minister, in a visit that Burnham said underlined Britain’s “unwavering” backing for Ukraine, Peter Walker writes.
The BriefWire