Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that all proposals to resume negotiations with Ukraine to end the war remained on the table, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Kyiv had secured US approval to manufacture Patriot air-defence missiles. The positions came as reciprocal strikes between Russia and Ukraine continued, causing casualties and material damage.
Putin keeps negotiation proposals under consideration
Putin told Russian journalists that Moscow needed to assess steps that served its interests. He said Russia had been ready to return to talks with Kyiv after last week’s Russian parliamentary elections, but accused Ukraine of targeting the capital and attacking polling stations.
The Russian president stressed that Kyiv must pay for what he described as provocative attacks, saying: “They should feel the Russian retaliatory strikes.” He added that Ukrainian leaders should realise that provocative actions or attempts to escalate tensions to secure gains would not work, but would instead, he said, worsen their situation.
Putin linked those attacks to Ukraine’s calls for a ceasefire and the resumption of talks. On relations with European countries, he denied that Moscow was preparing to target Europe, saying many there were discussing the prospect of Russian military action and using it as a basis for preparing for battles or war. He stressed that Russia was not preparing for any kind of conflict with Europe.
Moscow and Washington consider proposal for trilateral meeting
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and US President Donald Trump had discussed by phone a US proposal for a trilateral meeting involving Ukraine. He said a meeting at technical level would be held soon, and also confirmed that ensuring security in the Black Sea required a comprehensive solution.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Trump had settled, after a long period of hesitation, the question of allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot air-defence missiles. If the project moves into implementation, it will strengthen Ukraine’s capabilities as it seeks PAC-3 interceptor missiles used in Patriot systems, which the source described as the only ones capable of intercepting ballistic projectiles.
Patriot missile production will take time
But manufacturing the missiles inside Ukraine will not have an immediate impact on developments on the ground because of the time the project requires. Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy said that starting Patriot missile production in his country could take “a year or a year and a half”. In a related diplomatic track, Zelenskyy said he had asked Trump to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to use Beijing’s influence over Moscow, as part of efforts to push Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
He told journalists that he had received no response from the White House on the outcome of Trump’s talks with Xi, but expected to learn what they had produced. On the ground, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had targeted two Russian oil refineries overnight on Friday, in Perm and Novoshakhtinsk.
Strikes hit Russian and Ukrainian oil and postal facilities 복
Ukraine’s General Staff said a fire broke out at a facility belonging to Lukoil PJSC in the Perm region, as well as at a smaller oil-processing plant in Novoshakhtinsk in Russia’s southern Rostov region, following the attacks. In Odesa, Ukrainian authorities said one person was killed in a fresh strike that hit a postal facility previously targeted.
In Zaporizhzhia, medics evacuated 7 patients from a hospital whose building was damaged in a Russian raid that also caused a fire and injured two people. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had used drones overnight to strike facilities linked to Ukraine’s defence industries, as well as supply and logistics centres and vessels it said were being used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to the ministry’s account, the targets included a site for assembling and storing drones in the Kyiv region, logistics centres in the Odesa region and port infrastructure in the Danube city of Reni. The ministry added that Russian forces had struck a cargo vessel carrying military and dual-use goods to the port of Odesa.
It later said its forces had targeted a second cargo vessel in the Odesa region after it delivered military supplies to the port of Chornomorsk. They also struck a supply and logistics centre used by Ukraine’s military and security forces, and a data centre dedicated to processing and transmitting intelligence information.
In Ukraine’s Donetsk region, emergency services reported that one person was killed and another injured in a drone attack on a market near the Russian-controlled town of Horlivka. In recent months, Russia has stepped up its air raids using ballistic missiles and drones across Ukraine, damaging businesses, logistics networks, Black Sea port facilities and civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has intensified its attacks inside Russia, targeting defence facilities, energy-sector installations and online retail companies in an effort to reduce revenue and support directed towards Russia’s war effort.
