Zelenskyy condemns Sunday’s Russian airstrikes ahead of Friday’s summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, Aug. 10 Russian airstrikes resulted in casualties in the city of Zaporizhzhia. “Air-dropped bombs on the city, on residential buildings, on the bus station, on one of the clinics,” he said on X.
Zelenskyy said this bombing is why sanctions and pressure on Russia are necessary.
“If Russia does not want to stop the war, then its economy must be stopped,” he said.
ABC News reported that Russia and Ukraine exchanged attack drones overnight and into Sunday. According to Ukraine’s air force, they shot down or suppressed 70 of the 100 drones Russia sent into the country. Meanwhile, Russian troops shot down at least 126 Ukrainian drones.
Russian airports in Vladikavkaz, Grozny, Saratov and Kaluga placed temporary restrictions on flights as the assaults happened. One person was killed and several wounded in Saratov by the drone attacks, according to ABC.
Upcoming Putin-Trump talks
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Aug. 15 in Alaska. This marks the two leaders’ first in person talks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
NBC News reported, based on a senior U.S. official and three people briefed on the internal discussions, that the White House discussed inviting Zelenskyy to Friday’s meeting, though nothing’s been finalized.
“The President remains open to a trilateral summit with both leaders,” a senior White house official told the news outlet. “Right now, the White House is focusing on planning the bilateral meeting requested by President Putin.”
In an interview on Fox News that aired Sunday, Aug. 10, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Putin said he would never sit down with Zelenskyy, but Trump “has now got that to change.”
He said they are trying to schedule a time when the three can sit down together.
“We’re going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops,” Vance said. “It’s not going to make anyone super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, Aug. 9, said Ukraine is ready for peace in the war with Russia, but he refused any concession of land. He made these comments after Trump’s remarks indicating a deal between the two countries could have “some swapping of territories.”
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that “Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier.”
“This war must be brought to an end – and Russia must end it. Russia started it and is dragging it out, ignoring all deadlines, and that is the problem, not something else,” Zelenskyy said on the platform.
Ahead of Friday’s talks, European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer, in a joint statement backed Ukraine.
“We are convinced that only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed,” the statement said. “We stand ready to support this work diplomatically, as well as by upholding our substantive military and financial support to Ukraine, including through the work of the Coalition of the Willing, and by upholding and imposing restrictive measures against the Russian Federation.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
