Zelenskyi draws red lines for a future peace deal with Russia. Ukraine’s defense intelligence strikes Crimea targets, including a tug and a helicopter. Russia launches 145 drones, six missiles at Ukraine overnight.
Zelenskyi draws red lines for future peace deal with Russia
While Ukraine expects that one of the most difficult issues in future peace talks would be the one of territorial concessions, it will not recognize occupied territory as Russian, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said at a news conference in Helsinki on Wednesday alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
“As for the territories, it would probably be one of the most sensitive and difficult issues in future negotiations. (…) For us, the red line is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories as Russian. We will not go for it,” Zelenskyi said.
He added that the first step toward broader peace is unconditional ceasefire. A truce that starts as “a ceasefire in the air and at sea” will inevitably lead to “a ceasefire all along the front lines.” Once it is established, “we will move to other issues that I am sure will include territorial matters,” Zelenskyi said.
Zelenskyi argued that Russia wants the war against Ukraine to continue and urged the country’s allies to make no concessions on aid to Ukraine.
“No one can influence the U.S. decision to send aid to Ukraine or other countries. I believe that’s President Trump’s personal decision. Russia will surely want our partners to stop helping us because that would weaken Ukraine’s position. But it looks very weird: if Putin is not going to continue fighting against us and truly wants peace, why would he fear the Ukrainian army?” Zelenskyi continued.
He reiterated the importance of the U.S. sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Without U.S. intelligence, Ukraine will not have advance warnings of the “flight trajectory and launches of ballistic missiles,” he said.
“Why would Putin need that? If he doesn’t want to kill us, why would he insist that President Trump halt the flow of this information to us? It shows that his demands are inadequate. It also shows that he wants us not to know when ballistic missiles target civilians, because they launch ballistic missiles at civilian infrastructure sites,” Zelenskyi said.
These are all signs that Putin wants to continue the war, he added, saying that “I don’t think anybody should make any concessions in terms of helping Ukraine, but rather, assistance to Ukraine should be increased. This will be a signal that Ukraine is ready for any surprises from the Russians.”
Zelenskyi said Putin’s pledge not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days did not sit well with reality following overnight drone strikes at energy facilities across the country.
“Even last night, after Putin’s conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump, when Putin said that he was allegedly giving orders to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy system, there were 150 drones launched overnight, including on energy facilities,” Zelenskyi told the reporters.
In an overnight attack, Russia targeted transportation facilities, hospitals and civilian infrastructure in cities, Zelenskyi said. “Putin’s words are very much at odds with reality. That’s exactly why we need support to our defensive capabilities and air defenses. We need to put pressure on Russia for the sake of safety and in order to save the lives of our people,” Zelenskyi said.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence strikes Crimea targets, including tug, helicopter
The Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it had carried out a series of drone strikes on Russian radar and air defense systems, boats and a helicopter in occupied Crimea.
“The invaders in the temporarily occupied Crimea trembled for several days from an unprecedented rumble ― their expensive air defense systems proved helpless against the well-aimed strikes of the Main Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement.
The target list included Podlet, Nebo M, Niobium-SV, Kasta-2E2, 9S19 Ginger, Nebo SV, Mys, and 59H6-E Protivnik-GE radar systems. The defense intelligence said it also attacked a radar for an S-300VM surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, an S-300SV SAM launcher, control stations of ST-68 and Kasta-2E2 radar systems, three Pantsir systems, a Project S4236 transport ship, the Fyodor Uryupin universal tug and a Mi-8 helicopter.
Russia launches 145 drones, six missiles at Ukraine overnight
Russia launched a total of 145 attack drones and other unidentified types of drones at Ukraine overnight on Wednesday. It also sent into Ukraine two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and four S-300 surface-to-air missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ukraine’s military said it shot down 72 drones, and 56 more disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. The drones were launched from the area of Russia’s Bryansk, Oryol, Shatalovo, Kursk, Millerovo and Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
The intercepts took place over the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile groups to repel the attack.
The attack caused damage in the regions of Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava and Sumy, it added.
