Ukraine offers new peace talks, Putin 'ready but still targets goals'

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks next week, and that he wanted to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire.

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict.

"Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire," Zelenskyy said on Saturday evening in his evening address. "The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions."

The president said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details.

Umerov, a former defense minister, was appointed last week as the head of the National Security and Defence Council and tasked with adding more momentum to the negotiations.

On Sunday, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin was ready to move toward a peace settlement, but Moscow's main objective was to achieve its goals.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television that the world was now accustomed to Donald Trump's sometimes "harsh" rhetoric but pointed out that the U.S. President had also underscored in comments on Russia that he would continue to search for a peace deal.

"President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy," Peskov said.

"The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear."

On Monday, Trump announced a tougher stance on Russia, pledging a new wave of military aid to Ukraine, including Patriot missile defense systems. He also gave Russia a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face additional sanctions.

Russia has escalated long-range aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities as well as frontline assaults and shelling over recent months.

On Saturday, it fired missile and drone strikes that killed three people across Ukraine. Two people died after a missile hit Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial hub, into which Russian forces have recently advanced.

An earlier Russian salvo of 20 drones on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed at least one person overnight.

Russia had to suspend trains for about four hours overnight, causing extensive delays in the southern Rostov region, when it came under a Ukrainian drone attack that wounded one railway worker.

Moscow sanctions

As part of the Istanbul agreements, Kyiv received 1,000 soldiers' bodies on Thursday, while Russia said it had received 19 from Ukraine.

Russia has been pressing a grinding offensive along the eastern front in Ukraine's Donetsk region. 

The EU on Friday agreed an 18th package of sanctions on Moscow that targets Russian banks and lowers a price cap on oil exports, in a bid to curb its ability to fund its actions in the conflict.