Russia today demanded that kyiv’s allies enter into negotiations with Moscow to stop its brutal attacks on Ukrainians, as the besieged country’s capital defended itself from a large-scale drone bombing overnight.
Ukrainian air defense units in kyiv were heard shooting down Russian drones throughout the night as air raid sirens blared over the city on Thursday.
The head of Russia’s Security Council, Sergei Shoigu, called for negotiations, saying the West faced a choice between engaging in talks with Moscow about the war or the continued “destruction” of Ukraine’s population.
“Now, when the situation in the combat theater does not favor kyiv, the West faces a choice,” Shoigu said at a meeting with defense officials from other former Soviet states.
“Continue financing (kyiv) and the destruction of the Ukrainian population or recognize the current realities and start negotiating,” the former defense minister said.
Russia on Thursday demanded that kyiv’s allies enter into negotiations with Moscow to stop its brutal attacks on Ukrainians.
Russia’s demands come as it attacks Kyiv with a massive drone strike. Image: Tracers are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian military fire at the drone during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, today in kyiv, Ukraine.
Firefighters work in the premises of a vegetable warehouse affected by an attack with Russian drones
They were some of the first comments from a Russian official since Donald Trump, who boasted he could end the war in a single day, was elected president of the United States, Ukraine’s main political and military ally.
And his comments came as Ukrainian officials were taking stock after another night of aerial bombardment across the country and as Moscow claimed the capture of yet another village in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow said its forces had wrested control of Kreminna Balka, a pre-war village with a population of fewer than 50 people in the Donetsk industrial region, where Ukrainian defenses have been repulsed time and again.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reported that authorities in the Donetsk region were preparing to announce mandatory evacuations of seven more villages in the region, which the Kremlin says was part of Russia by 2022.
Its overnight drone strike against Ukraine damaged buildings in the southern Black Sea city of Odessa.
The head of Russia’s Security Council called for negotiations and said the West faced a choice between engaging in talks with Moscow on the war or the continued “destruction” of Ukraine.
Two people were injured in kyiv, authorities said, and the remains of some 36 downed drones landed in six districts of the capital, where the air alert lasted at least eight hours.
“The attack came in waves, from different directions, and the drones entered the city at different altitudes, both very low and high,” the city administration said.
The air force said it had shot down 74 drones deployed by Russia in 11 different regions, out of a total of 106 drones launched by Moscow against Ukraine.
Russia has systematically attacked the capital with drone and missile attacks since the first day of its invasion, launched almost three years ago, on February 24, 2022.
As a result of the drone attack, electricity supplies were temporarily cut off in the western regions of Rivne and Zhytomyr, local energy authorities said.
The head of the Kherson region, for his part, stated that the body of a man was recovered from the rubble of a house destroyed by the Russian attack that occurred overnight.
And in the eastern region of Sumy, the body of another person killed after a Russian airstrike was recovered hours earlier, the Interior Ministry said.
It comes after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday that a Trump victory in the US election would likely be bad news for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Putin said relations between the United States and Russia were at an all-time low.
Russia’s comments come after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.