AP file photo (July 31)
Russia and Ukraine exchanged fire overnight from Monday night into Tuesday, coinciding with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s talks in Washington with US President Donald Trump and other European leaders.Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia carried out its largest overnight strike in weeks, where it launched 270 drones and 10 missiles, of which 30 drones and six missiles were intercepted or neutralized. The impacts of 40 drones and four missiles were recorded across 16 sites, with debris reported in three locations.According to daily figures from Ukraine’s air force, Monday night’s strike was the largest since July 31 this year, when Russia launched 309 drones and eight missiles into the country, as cited by ABC News.Explosions were reported in Kremenchuk after Russian ballistic missiles struck Ukraine’s central region. Other cities closer to the frontline, including Kharkiv and Poltava, were also reportedly under the threat of missile attacks, said Ukraine’s air force, as quoted by Kyiv Independent. Russia’s defence ministry said that its forces downed 23 Ukrainian forces overnight into Tuesday over the Volgograd region. Debris sparked fires at an oil refinery and on the roof of a hospital, but no casualties were reported, said regional gov. Andrey Bocharov, through a post on Telegram. The overnight strikes came as Washington hosted high-level talks on Monday involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, several European leaders, and Trump to discuss a potential end to the conflict plaguing the region since 2022.”We are going to work with Ukraine, we are going to work with everybody. We are going to make sure that if there is peace, peace is going to stay long term. This is very long-term. We are not talking about a two-year peace and then we end up in this mess again. We are going to make sure that everything is good. We have worked with Russia, we are going to work with Ukraine. We are going to make sure it works, I think if we can get to peace, it’s going to work. I have no doubt it,” Trump said on Monday. Zelenskyy signaled he would welcome Trump’s participation in a potential future meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “President Trump will try to organize such a meeting,” Zelenskyy said of Trump’s push for talks with Putin. “And he said that he will come or not come, Ukraine will be happy if you [do].”The Kremlin has not yet explicitly confirmed Putin’s readiness to attend such a meeting. Trump and Putin “expressed their support for the continuation of direct negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations,” senior aide Yuri Ushakov stated, as per ABC News.
