Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said there will be a US-Ukraine-Russia trilateral meeting in November.
In a post on X on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks between technical groups. He also renewed his push for a US-brokered meeting between him and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
However, he warned:“Everyone must understand. First, we are not exchanging anything for anything. We are ready for discussions. If it is the territorial issue, then it must be discussed at the level of leaders. Other issues – at the level of technical groups. So all of this can be discussed in November.”
He also said that he “would not want us to approach a meeting of the three leaders - Ukraine, the United States, and Russia - having lifted all sanctions on the Russian Federation”.
He explained: “I do not want us to find ourselves at a meeting with Putin without tools, without sanctions, without money, or without frozen assets”.
Overnight Ukrainian drone attacks killed four people in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region and damaged an industrial site in the Perm region of the Ural Mountains, officials said on Sunday.
In the city of Belgorod near the Russian border with Ukraine, an attack killed three people and injured 13, said Belgorod regional governor Alexander Shuvayev.
Zelensky says US fully resumes warnings on ballistic strikes
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said US warnings about imminent Russian ballistic missile strikes, critical to Ukraine's air defences, had been fully restored after recent issues.
Speaking to Ukraine's TSN television channel, he said SpaceX's Starshield satellite internet had been working at speeds of up to 420 kilometres per hour since early on Saturday morning, after it had been throttled earlier in October amid diplomatic pressure on Kyiv from Washington.
Zelensky said he discussed both issues in a meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo, casting the changes as results of that meeting.
The US has pressed Ukraine to suspend strikes on Russian oil refineries, which it argues added to high energy prices, a sensitive issue for the Trump administration amid its war on Iran and US midterm elections next month.
Zelensky said that in order for Kyiv to halt the strikes, Moscow must stop hitting Ukraine's power infrastructure, or the US should allow the use of Starshield over Russia to detect launch places of its ballistic missiles, or supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles.
Editorial: Now more than ever, all of Europe needs to step up in support of Ukraine
After Donald Trump unilaterally declared an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine two weeks ago, Volodymyr Zelensky accepted it, even though it had come as news to him.
Ukrainian forces ceased their attacks on Russian refineries for a day or two, but as Vladimir Putin’s missiles and drones kept coming, the Ukrainians resumed their strikes.
It seems that President Trump had made up the ceasefire. “It was entirely in his head, which is where so many of his great diplomatic triumphs appear to occur,” as Sir Lawrence Freedman, the distinguished military analyst, observed.
Read more:
We cannot fight until the last Ukrainian – it’s time to call Putin’s bluff
Agrim, expensive, choice faces Europe and the United Kingdom. Take on Russia in Ukraine or wait for the fight to come into our homes. Prepping for Armageddon by stockpiling tins of rice pudding, water and wind-up radios will mean nothing if the fight is not taken to the enemy.
Ukraine has proved this. And the suffering being endured across the country as the Trump administration has sabotaged Kyiv’s weapons systems shows how far Vladimir Putin will go to achieve his ends – a nihilistic fetish for chaos among his rivals.
Sam Kiley reports:
Watch: Six injured after Russian drone strikes apartment block in central Ukraine
Watch: British and French paratroopers in largest airborne drill for decades amid Russia fears .mp4
Four killed in two drone attacks in Russia's Belgorod region
A Ukrainian drone attack overnight on the Russian border city of Belgorod killed three people and injured 13, local authorities said on Sunday, while a separate drone strike later in the day killed another person and wounded one other in a nearby village.
"Unfortunately, the death toll from last night's attack (in the city of Belgorod) has risen after another man who had been injured has died in hospital. This is a great tragedy for all the city's residents," Belgorod's mayor, Valentin Demidov, wrote on state-backed messaging app MAX.
The overnight attack on Belgorod damaged 30 apartment buildings, 35 cars, four houses, three administrative buildings, eight commercial premises and three social facilities, regional governor Alexander Shuvayev said.
In a separate incident on Sunday morning, one person was killed and another injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a car in the village of Voznesenovka near the town of Shebekino, local authorities said.
Ukraine strike on industrial zone kills security guard in Russia's Lipetsk
A Ukrainian missile strike on an industrial zone in the city of Yelets in Russia's southwestern Lipetsk region killed a security guard and injured a paramedic, regional governor Igor Artamonov said on Sunday.
Artamonov said the security guard worked at one of the industrial facilities located on the site. The paramedic at the medical centre was taken to hospital, where she was receiving the necessary treatment, the governor said.
The governor did not identify the facility that was hit in the strike.
Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine says Starlink speed limits lifted after a slowdown that hobbled its drones
Ukraine’s military has regained full use of Starlink satellite links for its drones and other fast-moving equipment, the defense minister said Saturday, ending speed restrictions that Ukrainian officials said had disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.
The restoration comes as U.S. envoys launched a new push to end the war. Russia agreed Wednesday to resume three-way negotiations with Washington and Kyiv next month. On Friday, Kyiv and Moscow also agreed to a localized ceasefire brokered by first lady Melania Trump around Oleshky, a war-ravaged, Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.
The Defense Ministry’s monitoring systems in Ukraine reported stable connections on objects traveling faster than 400 kph (250 mph), Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara told reporters.
US-Ukraine-Russia trilateral meeting to be held in November, Zelensky says
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has said there will be a US-Ukraine-Russia trilateral meeting in November.
In a post on X on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks between technical groups.
However, he warned: “Everyone must understand. First, we are not exchanging anything for anything. We are ready for discussions. If it is the territorial issue, then it must be discussed at the level of leaders. Other issues – at the level of technical groups. So all of this can be discussed in November.”
He also said that he “would not want us to approach a meeting of the three leaders - Ukraine, the United States, and Russia - having lifted all sanctions on the Russian Federation”.
He explained: “I do not want us to find ourselves at a meeting with Putin without tools, without sanctions, without money, or without frozen assets”.
EU makes cautious approaches to Russia
After initially leaving it to Trump to try to broker an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, the EU has made cautious approaches to Russia.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and France have said they supported a proposal for talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin to try to secure a ceasefire, and that Europe would play a role.
Russia, meanwhile, has said it would be open to dialogue but not ultimatums.
On Sunday, Ushakov said that Russia was ready to resume three-way peace talks with Ukraine and the US after Russia's National Unity Day on November 4, echoing Kremlin comments this week on Putin's willingness to resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine as soon as next month.
Zelensky said on Friday that peace negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US had agreed to meet at a technical level in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, adding that he hoped a meeting of their `leaders would follow.
Ushakov also commented on a potential meeting between Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, saying that preparations had already started.
The proposed meeting is set to be held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China over November 18-19.
A separate meeting between Putin and Trump in Shenzhen had not been agreed upon, Ushakov said.