Ukraine-Russia warfare reside: Putin suggests first direct peace talks with Zelensky forward of London summit

Russian forces have retaken a monastery in Russia’s Kursk region where Ukrainian troops had been holed up, state media reported on Tuesday.

Tass news agency quoted a security source as saying Russian forces had captured the St Nicholas Belogorsky monastery in the village of Gornal.

The claim has not yet been independently verified, and Ukraine is yet to comment.

A Russian military Telegram channel said Ukraine had deployed troops, artillery and drone launchers at the historic site, which it said Russia had retaken after 10 days of fierce fighting.

Russia is close to expelling the last Ukrainian troops from Kursk region, where they smashed across the border in a shock incursion last August.

Moscow responded by sending in heavy reinforcements, including soldiers from its ally North Korea.

Russian forces launched a mass overnight drone attack on residential areas of Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering fires and damaging many apartments, local officials said early this morning.

“The enemy targeted a residential area in a densely populated district of Odesa,” mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

He posted pictures of a fire blazing out of control and apartment buildings with windows smashed and facades damaged.

Regional governor Oleh Kiper said the attack damaged dwellings, civilian infrastructure, an educational institution and vehicles.

Emergency crews had been dispatched to the affected areas and information on casualties was being clarified, Kiper said.

Odesa, with its three ports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the more than three-year-old conflict with Russia.

Russian officials discussed reviving proposals for the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow as part of their bid to entice Donald Trump to reset ties between the two countries, according to a report in the Moscow Times citing Kremlin officials.

The “big deal” involving Mr Trump would also include inviting him to attend the ground-breaking ceremony in Moscow, the report said.

It is unclear where the proposal stands now, according to the Kyiv Independent. The reports came as Mr Trump said he would reveal his peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war later this week.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 10 Ukrainian drones overnight, downing half of them over the Crimean Peninsula, RIA news agency reported on Tuesday citing Russian defence ministry data.

US president Donald Trump says he will reveal his proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war later this week.

“I will be giving you a full detail over the next three days,” Mr Trump told reporters. “But we had very good meetings on Ukraine, Russia … We’ll see how that works.”

Among the terms included are a deployment of European peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, reported the New York Post citing a senior official from the Trump administration.

“The hard part is what does a security force look like – we’re calling that a ‘resiliency force,’” the official said.

Worshippers coming out of a Catholic church service in the Ukrainian city of Lviv yesterday expressed sorrow at the death of Pope Francis, but also lingering hurt that the Roman Catholic pontiff had not taken Ukraine’s side in its war with Russia.

The pontiff was quoted as saying in a 2024 interview with a Swiss broadcaster that Ukraine should have “the courage of the white flag”, and sue for peace to end the conflict with Russia.

Those comments differed sharply from the view held by Ukraine’s government, and its Western allies, that they have a moral imperative to defeat an unjust and unprovoked invasion by Russia.

“There were certain subjective judgments from his side, unfortunately,” said Andriy Ben, a former fighter in the Ukrainian military, referring to Pope Francis.

“I am not going to comment on this,” he said outside the church in Lviv. “I hope that the next pope will be wiser, more enlightened, and better.”

Another worshipper coming out of the church, 57-year-old Oleh Yakymiak, said the late pontiff did much in his life that was good.

“We understand that the good things he did are so much bigger than the painful thing he did to us,” said Mr Yakymiak.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Donald Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are likely to meet with their Ukrainian counterparts in London on Wednesday, as part of peace talks alongside European allies.

The meeting comes amid growing impatience from US president Donald Trump to find a quick end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Kremlin has indicated it is “satisfied” with the US’s negotiating position, which includes a ban on Ukraine joining Nato and international recognition of its illegal annexation of Crimea.

Ukraine has yet to approve of or reject those terms, though Volodymyr Zelensky has previously been critical of making such big concessions to Putin’s invading forces.

“We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine’s membership in Nato is excluded,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“Of course, this is something that causes our satisfaction and coincides with our position,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said Ukraine stood by its proposal for an end to attacks on civilian targets and was ready for any form of discussion to achieve it.

Previously, the US and Ukraine had framed this as a 30-day ceasefire.

“Ukraine maintains its proposal not to strike at the very least civilian targets. And we are expecting a clear response from Moscow,” he said.

“We are ready for any conversation about how to achieve this.”

He said the London talks “have a primary task: to push for an unconditional ceasefire. This must be the starting point.”

Mr Zelensky had earlier on Monday said an unconditional ceasefire would be “followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace”.

Vladimir Putin, speaking to a Russian state TV reporter, said Moscow was open to any peace initiatives and raised the prospect of direct talks with Kyiv for the first time in years.

There have been no direct talks between the two sides since the early weeks after Mr Putin ordered his forces to invade their European neighbour in February 2022.

“We have always talked about this, that we have a positive attitude towards any peace initiatives. We hope that representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way,” Mr Putin told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, quoted later by Interfax news agency, told reporters: “When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side.”

Russia has resumed its attack on Ukraine after a 30-hour Easter ceasefire, which both sides have accused the other of violating.

At least three people were killed and three injured in the aerial strikes in the southern Kherson region on Monday after the temporary truce expired at midnight on Sunday.

Ukrainian forces said that at least 96 drones and three missiles were launched overnight in the country’s central and eastern regions.

Among those killed included a woman who was hit by a drone while walking on the street in Kherson, said former prosecutor general of Ukraine Gyunduz Mamedov.

Four were injured in strikes on Donetsk.

Vladimir Putin’s forces confirmed they were continuing what they dub the “special military operation” and claimed to have “strictly” observed the pause, though Ukraine says attacks on the frontline continued throughout the Easter weekend.