Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine after the war with Russia was “important” since kyiv seeks to work on possible security guarantees with his western allies.
The question of the presence in the field, as they say, Boots on the Ground is important for us, “said Zelensky, speaking together with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who visited kyiv while celebrating Ukraine’s independence day against a background of disadvantages of recent peace efforts.
Carney said previously that it did not depend on Russia to decide on possible security guarantees for Ukraine that kyiv looks for Western allies for when the war ends.
“It is not the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence and freedom of Ukraine is guaranteed. It is the choice of Ukraine and the decisions of the partners,” Carney told journalists about his visit to kyiv.
Today early, Ukraine threw a wave of drone strikes on Russia, which caused a fire in a nuclear energy plant.
After a wave of diplomacy and an impulse of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to negotiate a summit among his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, the peace prospects seemed to stop on Friday when Russia ruled out any immediate meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
The three and a half -year war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, has a land of virtual stagnation, although Russia has managed to obtain recent progress in a grinding offensive, including the claim of two villages in the East Region of East Donetsk on Saturday.
Ukraine responded on Sunday by sending drones to new attacks against the Russian territory, including one that was shot down on the Kursk nuclear energy plant in western Russia, which detonated the impact and caused a fire, according to the installation.
The plant said the fire had extinguished, and added that there were no low or higher levels of radiation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned about the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants after the large -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian authorities said that the Ukrainian drones had also been demolished over areas sometimes far from the front, including St. Petersburg in the northwest.
Ten drones were shot down on the port of Ust-Luga in the Gulf of Finland, causing a fire in a fuel terminal owned by the Russian Energy Group Novatek, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko wrote on Telegram.
The smallest and stuck army in Ukraine has depended largely on drones to respond to the invasion of Russia, especially pointing to the oil infrastructure to reach a key source of Moscow’s income to finance the war.
Russia has seen the high fuel prices since the attacks began.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said that Russia had attacked him during the night with a ballistic missile and 72 Shahed attack drones manufactured in Iranian, 48 of which the Air Force said it had been shot down.
A Russian unmanned aircraft strike killed a 47 -year -old woman in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, said the governor.
Moscow, Kyiv Exchange 146 power each
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine sent each of the 146 prisoners of war (prisoners of war) today, said the Ministry of Defense of Moscow, the last of a series of exchanges that has seen hundreds of prisoners of war published this year.
The exchanges of large -scale prisoners were the only tangible result of three rounds of conversations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul between May and July. They are still one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.
“On August 24, 146 Russian military were returned from the controlled territory” by kyiv, said Russian Ministry of Defense in Telegram. “In return, 146 War prisoners of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine.
Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation, residents of the Kursk region, illegally arrested” by kyiv were also returned as part of the exchange.
‘Great power and NATO security guarantee’
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Sunday that a group of nations, including members of the United Nations Security Council, should be the guarantors of Ukraine security.
Reuters Last week, he informed that President Vladimir Putin demands that Ukraine renounce the entire Eastern region of Donbas, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops outside the country, three sources familiar with the thought of high -level Kremlin told Reuters.
Lavrov said NBC news“Meet the press” that Putin and Trump had discussed the issue of a security guarantee for Ukraine and that Putin had raised the issue of the failed Discussions of Istanbul of 2022.
In these discussions, Russia and Ukraine discussed the permanent neutrality of Ukraine in exchange for the security guarantees of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: Great Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other countries, according to a draft according to Reuters In 2022.
Lavrov said NBC That a group that includes members of the Security Council must guarantee the security of Ukraine.
“The group could also include Germany and Türkiye and other countries,” said Lavrov.
“The guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which should not be aligned with any military block and must be non -nuclear,” said Lavrov, according to a transcription of the interview published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lavrov also made it clear that NATO’s membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia, that Moscow wanted protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine and that there was a territorial discussion with Ukraine.
‘Ukraine is a fighter’
The last fight occurred when Ukraine marked the anniversary of winning independence in 1991 in the rupture of the Soviet Union. “This is how Ukraine attacks when their calls to peace are ignored,” Zelensky said in an independence day speech.
“Today, both the United States and Europe agree: Ukraine has not yet won completely, but it will certainly not lose. Ukraine has assured its independence. Ukraine is not a victim; he is a fighter.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney traveled to kyiv for commemorations, asking “a fair and lasting peace for Ukraine.”
Zelensky thanked other world leaders, including Trump, Chinese president, Xi Jinping, King Charles and the Pope for sending messages to mark the occasion.
Russia now controls around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which annexed in 2014.
The fight has forced millions of people to flee their homes and destroy cities and towns throughout the east and southern Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly rejected the calls of Ukraine and the West due to a high unconditional and immediate fire.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “no meeting” between Putin and Zelensky was planned since Trump’s mediation efforts seemed to stop, while Zelensky accused Russia of trying to prolong the offensive.
