Russia Denies Report About Talks With Ukraine, Launches New Strikes

Russia on Sunday (18 August) denied a report that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv on halting strikes on energy and power targets, and launched another series of air attacks, including on Kyiv.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both warring sides.

The Post said the agreement would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but that the talks were derailed due to Ukraine’s attack on Russian sovereign territory.

“No one broke anything off because there was nothing to break off,” Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said of the Post report.

“There have been no direct or indirect negotiations between Russia and the Kyiv regime on the safety of civilian critical infrastructure facilities.”

Ukraine’s government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Post reported that Ukraine’s presidential office said the summit in Doha had been postponed due to the situation in the Middle East and would take place in video conference format on 22 August.

Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of striking civilian infrastructure in the war. Both deny they do so.

Zakharova then quoted President Vladimir Putin who on 12 August questioned what talks there could be with Ukraine after its ground attack on Russia, and what he said were attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.

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“There is nothing to talk about with people who unleash such things,” Zakharova said.

‘Kursk direction’

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a “special military operation” and now holds about 18% of the country. Ukraine’s cross-border strike into the Kursk region on 6 August was the first military incursion into Russian territory since World War Two.

The Ukrainian Air Force destroyed another strategic bridge over the Seym River in Russia’s Kursk region, limiting the supply capacity of a Russian group opposing the Ukrainian advance, Ukraine’s commander said on Sunday.

Kyiv said it had seized more than 80 settlements over 1,150 square km in Kursk since launching a surprise strike across the border on 6 August, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.

“Kursk direction. Minus one more bridge! Ukrainian Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision airstrikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities,” Mykola Oleshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app.

He posted a video showing a growing cloud from an explosion on a bridge and one of its sections destroyed. Reuters could not independently confirm the bridge's destruction or the Kursk battlefield situation.

Earlier, military analysts said there were three bridges in the area of the Ukrainian army’s offensive through which Russia supplies its forces and that two of them have been either destroyed or seriously damaged.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday thanked the Ukrainian forces involved in the Kursk operation and on the eastern front and asked the country’s allies to speed up the delivery of promised military aid.

“Our operation in the Kursk region is still inflicting losses on the Russian army and the Russian state, their defense industry, and their economy,” Zelenskyy said in an evening television address.

“Regarding deliveries from our partners – need acceleration, we ask very much. War has no holidays,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian air attack

Ukraine’s air defense units repelled Russia’s overnight air attack, including on Kyiv, destroying all 11 drones that Moscow launched, targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said on Monday.

The drones were destroyed over the Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Donetsk regions, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

There were no immediate reports of damage due to the attack or falling drone debris.