Photo caption: Russian President Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated his readiness to engage in peace talks and potentially meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even as a recent Russian attack on Kyiv resulted in 28 fatalities.
The article details the severe impact of the latest Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv, which caused widespread destruction and prompted Ukrainian officials to declare a day of mourning.
International efforts to address the conflict continue, with Zelenskyy attending the Group of Seven summit and key allies like the UK and Canada announcing new sanctions and military support for Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he is ready “to find a solution” to his war with Ukraine and to potentially meet with the Ukrainian leader, even as the death toll from Russia’s latest attack on Kyiv rose to 28 people.
“We need to find a solution that would not only put an end to the current conflict but also create conditions that would prevent similar situations from recurring in the long term,” Putin told foreign media in a televised briefing on June 18 in St. Petersburg.
Putin said talks could resume at some point after June 22, the date he has previously suggested for a major new swap of prisoners and the exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers.
The Russian leader added, however, that he would only meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in “final phase” of any peace negotiations.
“I am ready to meet with everyone, including Zelenskyy. That is not the issue — if the Ukrainian state trusts someone in particular to conduct negotiations, for God’s sake, it can be Zelenskyy,” Putin said.
“I am even ready to meet him — but only if it is some kind of final phase,” Putin said.
The West has slapped crippling sanctions on Russia while NATO has beefed up its forces on its eastern flank since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Rights groups have alleged major rights violations and war crimes committed by Russian forces during their military operations.
Western allies have also widely criticized Putin for his refusal to agree to cease-fire terms put forward by US President Donald Trump.
Putin’s wide-ranging briefing came as Ukrainian emergency workers throughout June 18 were pulling bodies from the rubble of destroyed Kyiv apartment buildings hit by Russian missile and drone strikes, as the death toll in the Ukrainian capital rose to 28 people, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Workers with search dogs and heavy construction equipment picked through debris looking for more survivors of the attack a day earlier — one of the largest on Kyiv in years.
More than 150 people in Kyiv and elsewhere were wounded in the June 17 barrage, emergency services said, which also hit Odesa, killing at least two people in the Black Sea port city.
Ukrainian officials declared a day of mourning for victims of the attack, which Zelenskyy called “pure terrorism” and blamed Putin.
“The whole world, the United States, and Europe must finally respond as a civilized society responds to terrorists,” he said. “Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war.”
Zelenskyy traveled to Canada to join a meeting of the Group of Seven summit, and scheduled talks on the sideline with Trump.
The meeting, however, was overshadowed by Trump’s early departure, and leaders failed to produce a strong agreement on the Ukraine conflict. An unnamed Canadian official told reporters that US resistance was to blame.
Trump cited the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran as the reason for his early departure.
Speaking to journalists about the issue on June 18, Trump said that Putin has offered to help mediate the Middle East conflict in a recent phone call between the two leaders.
“Let’s mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later,” Trump said he told Putin.
Zelenskyy did meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and afterward, the UK government announced that in the coming weeks there would be another meeting of the “coalition of the willing” — a group of countries that have committed to providing military support to Ukraine outside the formal structures of NATO.
Starmer, who has discussed the idea of sending international peacekeepers to Ukraine after a cease-fire is reached, announced a new set of sanctions on Russia, as did Canada.
In Kyiv, an entire nine-story section of an apartment building was razed to the ground by a missile strike during the Russian onslaught, which occurred early in the morning as many residents were sleeping. Windows in adjacent buildings were blown out and hunks of debris littered the street.
“It’s a disaster,” one survivor in Kyiv told Current Time, his face and chest flecked with blood.
“There was a first strike…. It threw me into the hallway,” he said. “I went to get my mother. She must have been in shock and tried to shut the window. Then there was a second strike. I don’t remember much. I came around and pulled my mother out of the room, thank God, because there was so much smoke and she could have suffocated.”
Russia launched another barrage of drones at Ukrainian targets early June 18, though it was much smaller and less deadly than the previous day’s attack, which also included cruise and ballistic missiles.
Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine despite efforts by the United States to broker a peace deal. No visible progress has emerged from two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul in the past month beyond exchanges of prisoners and the remains of the war dead, and a third round has not been scheduled.
Russia claims it does not target civilians, despite ample evidence that it does, and many of the growing number of civilian casualties have been caused by Russian long-range missile and drone attacks.
The confirmed civilian death toll since the start of the full-scale invasion is over 13,000, according to the UN, but officials say the real number is likely higher.
By RFE/RL
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