Russia-Ukraine war | Ukraine: New wave of strikes follows Putin-Witkoff talks

Ukraine has accused Russia of showing no willingness to change its position on the war after launching a wave of ballistic missile strikes just hours after the Kremlin agreed to resume U.S.-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict. Ukrainian authorities said Russia carried out a massive overnight assault targeting Kyiv and other parts of the country after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Air raid sirens sounded through the night and into the morning in Kyiv where two people were reportedly killed and more than 30 others were wounded. In the eastern city of Luhove, two women were killed and dozens of people wounded in a strike on a crowded market. Meanwhile, two people were reportedly wounded in Russia's Moscow region following a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack. In all, 12 Ukrainian regions came under attack overnight with residential buildings, energy infrastructure, shops, cafes and a monastery among the sites reportedly hit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian assault began almost immediately after Witkoff and Putin held hours of talks in St. Petersburg. He said that it means there has been no real change in Moscow's attitude towards everything that is happening. The Ukrainian president accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in Kiev, including with cluster munitions. Zelensky wrote, and I quote here, Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian humanitarian agents. a clear dig at Witkoff's description of Putin as a humanitarian. The strikes came after the Kremlin said it was prepared to resume trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States next month. However, Moscow rejected new proposals purportedly put forward by Witkoff and developed in consultation with European countries and Ukraine. In a televised interview aired last Thursday, Putin said any trilateral negotiations should focus on security arrangements arrangements as part of a final peace settlement, rather than a temporary ceasefire. Well, listen to this. We have agreed that we are ready to resume our trilateral contacts. The purpose of these negotiations will be to discuss the issue of ensuring the security of Ukraine and Russia after reaching peace agreements, and specifically in their final form, rather than as a result of a suspension of hostilities for some brief period of time. We are ready to resume these contacts to achieve this goal. Putin also reiterated that Russia had no intentions of going to war with Europe, adding that European countries did not want such a conflict either. He questioned the appropriateness of Ukrainian leaders discussing potential territorial losses, arguing that the territories claimed by Moscow were historically Russian land. Firstly, my attitude towards this matter is that this is not their territory. This is the territory of historical Russia. Moreover, the people living in these territories voted, first, for state independence. And as a second step, and I want to emphasize this, they voted for reunification with the Russian Federation. So, it seems to me inappropriate to speak of some kind of territorial losses. This is a matter of debate, and one could argue about it endlessly. Russia is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region that remain under Ukrainian control. Moscow is also seeking sweeping political and military restrictions on Ukraine, including limits on the size of its armed forces and its Western alliances. Kiev rejects those demands, arguing that they amount to capitulation and would leave the country vulnerable.