RUSSIAN and Ukrainian peace talks seemed in jeopardy yesterday as the warring sides exchanged drone attacks and Vladimir Putin made outlandish territory demands.
With a 30-day ceasefire mooted, the Russian leader said: "We agree to stop fighting in Ukraine but it should be a long-lasting peace."
His words may have given rise to optimism, but it is believed his demands include global recognition that Crimea, which he annexed from Ukraine in 2014, plus four other key areas of the country, are now part of his Russian Federation.
Putin also demanded that any peace deal must address what he calls the root causes of the war, perhaps referring to his bogus claim that he invaded Ukraine to help people there who want to be Russian.
And he said: "It's necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border"- indicating that Moscow wants to expand its territorial gains even further, by capturing parts of Ukraine's Sumy region.
Sources revealed yesterday that the Kremlin is also demanding that Ukraine cannot be part of Nato, and that there must be no foreign troops in the country.
And Putin seemed unenthusiastic about the US-brokered 30-day pause in hostilities, saying Ukraine might just use it to strengthen its forces.
He was speaking yesterday at a press conference with ally Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, who in 2022 allowed Russia to launch an offensive on Kyiv from Belarusian soil.
Despite Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula and ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine, Lukashenko said: "We three Slavic nations have lived together peacefully and we should sit down and agree something."
His talk of peace came the day after Ukrainian border town Sumy was among areas coming under attack from Russia. The north-eastern area was hit by around 40 kamikaze drones. A residential area of Kherson was shelled.
There was also fighting in Kursk, the area of Russia that Ukraine invaded last August as it sought to force Putin to rethink his war.
Putin himself had, the day before, put on a set of military fatigues to visit his troops at the front there, and ordered them to repel the Ukrainians.
But Ukraine was on the offensive too. It fired a total of 77 drones into Russia, targeting six districts.
One target destroyed was a drone factory in Kaluga Oblast.
There the governor said an industrial facility, a communications infrastructure site and an energy facility were also hit.
Kaluga Airport activated emergency plans that included cancelling all flights. The attacks came the night before a visit to Moscow by US president Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff yesterday.
Witkoff was later set to hold talks with top Kremlin officials, reportedly including Putin. Negotiating tools that could be deployed include the threat of new economic sanctions against Russia which Trump has, in veiled threats, suggested might be used if Russia will not engage with peace efforts.
Russia and Ukraine ...
With a 30-day ceasefire mooted, the Russian leader said: "We agree to stop fighting in Ukraine but it should be a long-lasting peace."
His words may have given rise to optimism, but it is believed his demands include global recognition that Crimea, which he annexed from Ukraine in 2014, plus four other key areas of the country, are now part of his Russian Federation.
Putin also demanded that any peace deal must address what he calls the root causes of the war, perhaps referring to his bogus claim that he invaded Ukraine to help people there who want to be Russian.
And he said: "It's necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border"- indicating that Moscow wants to expand its territorial gains even further, by capturing parts of Ukraine's Sumy region.
Sources revealed yesterday that the Kremlin is also demanding that Ukraine cannot be part of Nato, and that there must be no foreign troops in the country.
And Putin seemed unenthusiastic about the US-brokered 30-day pause in hostilities, saying Ukraine might just use it to strengthen its forces.
He was speaking yesterday at a press conference with ally Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, who in 2022 allowed Russia to launch an offensive on Kyiv from Belarusian soil.
Despite Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula and ongoing invasion of eastern Ukraine, Lukashenko said: "We three Slavic nations have lived together peacefully and we should sit down and agree something."
His talk of peace came the day after Ukrainian border town Sumy was among areas coming under attack from Russia. The north-eastern area was hit by around 40 kamikaze drones. A residential area of Kherson was shelled.
There was also fighting in Kursk, the area of Russia that Ukraine invaded last August as it sought to force Putin to rethink his war.
Putin himself had, the day before, put on a set of military fatigues to visit his troops at the front there, and ordered them to repel the Ukrainians.
But Ukraine was on the offensive too. It fired a total of 77 drones into Russia, targeting six districts.
One target destroyed was a drone factory in Kaluga Oblast.
There the governor said an industrial facility, a communications infrastructure site and an energy facility were also hit.
Kaluga Airport activated emergency plans that included cancelling all flights. The attacks came the night before a visit to Moscow by US president Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff yesterday.
Witkoff was later set to hold talks with top Kremlin officials, reportedly including Putin. Negotiating tools that could be deployed include the threat of new economic sanctions against Russia which Trump has, in veiled threats, suggested might be used if Russia will not engage with peace efforts.
Russia and Ukraine ...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 14, 2025