Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be “the most effective way forward” despite stalled efforts to end the conflict and continued drone strikes by both sides.
Zelenskyy, speaking on August 24 at a ceremony marking the country’s Independence Day, vowed to “to push Russia to peace.”
Earlier on August 24, Kyiv’s top general said that Ukrainian troops had recaptured three villages in the Donetsk region, and Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant that was quickly extinguished.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on August 25 that Russian air defense units destroyed two drones flying toward the Russian capital. He said emergency services were working at the site where the debris fell.
Russian attack late on August 24 left some settlements in the Sumy region without electricity, said the head of the regional military administration said. Russian troops also attacked civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region using guided bombs and strike drones, the official said. There were no casualties.
The drone attacks and ground battles have continued despite a push by US President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, an effort that has faltered since Trump hosted Putin for a summit in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15.
Zelenskyy said that a “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward,” but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov threw up a new roadblock to direct talks during an interview with US broadcaster NBC.
“The reaction to the Anchorage meeting, the gathering in Washington of these European representatives, and what they were doing after Washington indicates that they don’t want peace,” Lavrov said in the pre-taped interview.
He added that permanent UN Security Council members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — should be the guarantors of Ukraine’s security. Kyiv and other allies have so far rejected the idea of Moscow being among the security guarantors for a peace deal, and Zelenskyy has rejected the prospect of Beijing playing a role.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, visiting Kyiv on August 24, said it was not “the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence, liberty of Ukraine is guaranteed.”
Carney also said that he would not rule out the presence of Canadian troops in Ukraine as part of future proposed security guarantees, the details of which Kyiv and its European allies are still working out.
“We know that Putin can never be trusted,” Carney said in his speech on Kyiv’s St. Sophia Square. “We know that true peace and security will require security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Russia has repeatedly objected to Western troops being stationed in Ukraine.
US Vice President JD Vance also spoke with US broadcaster NBC on August 24, saying that Russia has made “significant concessions” to end the conflict.
“They have actually been willing to be flexible on some of their core demands. They’ve talked about what would be necessary to end the war,” Vance said in the interview.
Vance said Moscow has conceded “that Ukraine will have territorial integrity after the war. They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv.”
In his speech at the ceremony to mark the anniversary of Ukraine’s 1991 independence, Zelenskyy said the United States and Europe agree that Ukraine “has not yet fully won, but it will certainly not lose. Ukraine has secured its independence,” he said. “Ukraine is not a victim; it is a fighter.”
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