Moscow, Kyiv signal intent to talk peace

MOSCOW/KYIV — Both Russia and Ukraine have signaled openness toward peace over the weekend, as fighting shows no signs of easing on the battleground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to move toward a peace settlement for Ukraine, but Moscow's main objective is to achieve its goals, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television in a clip published on Sunday.

It came after Kyiv proposed to Moscow a new round of peace talks this week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

"President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy," Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

"The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear," Peskov said.

Previously, two rounds of talks in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to result in any progress toward a ceasefire, instead yielding large-scale prisoner exchanges and deals to return the bodies of killed soldiers.

"Security Council Secretary Rustem Umerov … reported that he had proposed the next meeting with the Russian side for next week," Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday. "The momentum of the negotiations must be stepped up," he added.

Zelensky reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sit-down with Putin. "A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace — lasting peace," he said.

At talks last month, Russia outlined a list of demands, including Ukraine ceding territory and rejecting all forms of Western military support.

Kyiv dismissed them as unacceptable and at the time questioned the point of further negotiations if Moscow was not willing to make concessions.

The Kremlin said earlier this month that it was ready to continue talks with Ukraine.

As the conflict grinds on, hostilities on the battlefield continue unabated.

Russia's defense ministry and the mayor of Moscow said it had downed 142 drones overnight, including 27 over the Moscow region.

The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea.

The attacks included four drones headed toward the Russian capital, which were downed on Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Telegram.

According to Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, four major airports serving Moscow — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy — were affected, resulting in 134 flights being redirected.

Meanwhile, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine overnight into Saturday with hundreds of drones.

Zelensky posted on X that Russia fired over 300 drones, along with more than 30 cruise missiles.

One person died in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, which was hit with more than 20 drones and a missile, Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov wrote on Telegram, while five people were rescued when a fire broke out in a residential high-rise building.

Moscow and Kyiv are menacing each other with swarms of cheap drones to overwhelm each other's air defense, as both sides said on Saturday that they had intercepted hundreds of drones, now launched in large amounts almost daily.

As part of the Istanbul agreements, Kyiv received 1,000 soldiers' bodies on Thursday, while Russia said it had received 19 from Ukraine.

Agencies via Xinhua