Kremlin official says Russian police and National Guard to stay in Ukraine’s Donbas even after peace
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian police and the National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region to monitor the valuable industrial region even if the peace deal expires, a senior Kremlin official said almost four years of war — A possibility that will likely be rejected by Ukrainian officials US-led negotiations drag it.
Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov, in his comments published in the Russian economic newspaper Kommersant on Friday, said Moscow would approve the ceasefire only after Ukrainian forces withdraw from the front line.
Ushakov told Kommersant that “it is entirely possible that in the post-war scenario there will be no troops (neither Russian nor Ukrainian) in Donbas.”
But “there will be the National Guard, our police, everything that is needed to maintain order and organize life,” he said.
For months, American negotiators have tried to navigate both sides’ demands as US President Donald Trump puts pressure on them. a quick ending He enters Russia’s war and grows increasingly angry about the delays. The search for a possible compromise has been concluded a big obstacle It is a matter of who holds the Ukrainian lands that Russian forces have occupied so far.
Russia has seized nearly 20% of its neighbor since Moscow’s unlawful annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the seizure of eastern territory by Russia-backed separatists later that year, followed by a full-scale invasion launched on February 24, 2022.
Ukraine says its constitution does not allow for the surrender of territory. Russia, which illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions in 2022, says the same. Ushakov said that “regardless of the outcome (of the peace talks), this region (Donbas) is the territory of the Russian Federation.”
On Thursday, Trump compared the negotiations to a very complicated real estate deal. He said he wanted to see more progress in the talks before sending envoys to possible meetings with European leaders over the weekend.
In October, Trump announced that the Donbas region must be “cut” to end the war.
Ukrainian counter-attacks
In recent months, the Russian military has made a decisive move to seize control of entire regions of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together form the valuable Donbas region.
His slow effort in the Ukrainian countryside, using his significant advantage in troop numbers in a grinding war of attrition, proved costly in casualties and armor losses. Despite being outnumbered, Ukrainian defenders remained determined in many areas and counterattacked in others.
Ukrainian forces said on Friday they had recaptured several settlements and neighborhoods near the city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, following a months-long operation aimed at reversing Russia’s advance.
Kupiansk has been one of the most closely contested sectors of the nearly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in recent months.
According to a statement published on Facebook by the Khartia Troops of the National Guard, Ukrainian troops gradually cut off Russian supply routes to Kupiansk from September 22 and regained control of the villages of Kindrashivka and Radkivka, as well as some northern areas of the city.
The statement stated that clashes continue in the center of Kupiansk, where more than 200 Russian soldiers are surrounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video of himself standing on the Kupiansk road on Friday. While he was talking, explosions could be heard in the background.
In the video, Zelenskyy praised his soldiers on Ukrainian Ground Forces Day and said, “Today, it is critical to get results on the battlefield so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy.”
Russian officials had no comment and the Ukrainians’ statements could not be independently verified.
At the end of October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: Ukrainian troops in Kupiansk were surrounded and offered to negotiate their surrender. He said a media visit to the area would prove this.
Ukraine has also developed long-range strike capabilities, using domestically produced weapons to disrupt Russia’s war machine.
An operation in the Caspian Sea attacked two Russian ships carrying military equipment and weapons, Special Operations Forces (SSO) said on Friday.
In its statement on social media, SSO said that the ships named Compositor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Saridzha are under US sanctions for carrying weapons between Russia and Iran. It was not stated which weapons were used in the attack.
Cross-border drone attacks
Seven people, including a child, were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Tver, Russia, Acting Governor Vitaly Korolev said Friday. Korolev said parts of the falling drone hit an apartment building in the city northwest of Moscow.
Russian air defense destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Russian drones struck the Pavlohrad settlement in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding four others, the head of the local military administration, Vladyslav Animalenko, wrote on Telegram on Friday.
Ukraine’s southern Odesa region was subjected to a large-scale drone attack overnight, regional chief Oleh Kiper said. He said the attack damaged energy infrastructure. Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak said more than 90,000 people were without power on Friday morning.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 80 drones across the country overnight.
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Dasha Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
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You can follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
