Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to join an upcoming peace summit to stop the war in Ukraine. Reports say Ukraine is struggling to stave off unrelenting attacks by Russia. Ukraine has also been battling with troop numbers as it battles to recruit more.
Russia’s forces have in recent weeks advanced on the battlefield and stepped up air strikes on cities, and Kyiv hopes the June meeting in Switzerland will help to pile up international pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an English-language video recorded inside the charred remains of a printing press destroyed on Thursday in a Russian air strike, Zelenskyy said the summit would “show who in the world really wants to end the war.”
Russia has said it sees no point in the conference to which Moscow is not currently invited. Zelenskyy’s comments came two days after Russian sources told Reuters that Putin was ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines. Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s supporters say a ceasefire will only help Russia rearm and regroup.
Russia has in recent months made slow but steady gains along several parts of the sprawling eastern front and is attempting to push deeper into the north-eastern Kharkiv region after a ground incursion launched earlier this month. In an interview with Reuters last week, Zelenskyy said it was crucial to get as many countries around the table at the peace talks as possible.
Putin has said he believes the talks may convert Ukrainian demands for a Russian withdrawal into an ultimatum for Russia. Russia said on Monday its forces had captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine — Netailove in the Donetsk region, and Ivanivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukraine has yet to issue a statement on Moscow’s claim.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and three others were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a gas station in Russia’s Oryol region near the Ukrainian border, according to Andrei Klychkov, the regional governor. Another drone attack was then launched after the arrival of emergency services on the scene, he said. Separately, the death toll from Russia’s weekend attack on a hardware hypermarket in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, has risen to 16, with dozens more injured.
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