Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kremlin echoes Trump attack on Zelensky after hitting Kyiv in massive missile strike

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during the press conferencethat the talks between Ukrainian and Western officials in London on Wednesday had not been “easy” but were “constructive.”

Foreign minister-level Ukraine peace talks that were due to take place were postponed at the last minute amid speculation that Russia is willing to change its position and after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said he could not attend.

The meeting was replaced by discussions by other officials

“I am sure that Russia was counting on a big scandal yesterday,” Mr Zelensky said. “I’m sure Russia was hoping for a huge row yesterday. Russia doesn’t like the alliance around Ukraine, because Ukraine would be an easier target without it.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he does not see any strong pressure on Russia at present, in in a press conference with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa during a visit to the country.

Russia’s overnight attack on Ukraine was part of sa Russian pressure campaign on the US, he added.

For Kyiv to negotiate with Russian “terrorists” after any ceasefire would already be a big compromise on its part, the Ukrainian leader said. While Ukraine is ready to do everything its partners propose, it cannot do anything which contravenes its constitution – such as recognising Ukrainian territory as Russian.

Jutting out into the Black Sea off southern Ukraine, Crimea was absorbed into the Russian Empire along with most ethnic Ukrainian territory by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. Russia’s Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol was founded soon afterwards.

More than half a million people were killed in the Crimean War of 1853-56 when competing geopolitical powers Russia and the Ottoman Empire, backed by Britain and France, took up arms. The conflict reshaped Europe and paved the way for World War One.

In 1921, the peninsula, then populated mainly by Muslim Tatars, became part of the Soviet Union. The Tatars were deported en masse by Soviet leader Josef Stalin at the end of World War Two for alleged collaboration with the Nazis.

Crimea became part of Russia within the Soviet Union until 1954, when it was handed to Ukraine, also then a Soviet Republic, by Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, there were periodic political tussles over its status between Moscow and Kyiv before Russia captured Crimea by force in 2014.

Russia sent forces into Crimea and seized control of the peninsula after Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted during mass protests in February 2014.

A former Russian commander who criticised Moscow’s military leadership in Ukraine was sentenced to five years on Thursday after a military court found him guilty of large-scale fraud, the Tass state news agency reported.

Ivan Popov, a former major general who led Russia’s 58th army and who fought in Chechnya and later commanded Russian units in southern Ukraine, was found guilty of stealing more than 130 million roubles ($1.56 million) of metal products intended for building fortifications along the Ukrainian frontline.

In the press conference with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr Zelensky says he is not seeing very strong pressure on Russia at present.

For Kyiv to negotiate with Russian “terrorists” after a ceasefire is implemented, he adds, is already a significant compromise on Ukraine’s part.

Ukraine is ready to do everything partners propose but he cannot do things which contravene its constitution, he added.

Speaking in a press conference alongside South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, Volodymyr Zelensky has said talks in London yesterday were “not easy”.

The Ukrainian president did not attend the talks. US secretary of state Marco Rubio also pulled out of the talks.

Mr Zelensky did add that the London talks were “constructive”.

Russian troops have taken control of the village of Bohdanivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday according to state news agency Tass.

The Independent could not verify the battlefield report, but authoritative Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState appears to show it under Russian control.

The Kremlin has echoed Donald Trump’s comments after he criticised Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for refusing to cede territory to Russia.

“Crimea was lost years ago… and is not even a point of discussion,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday.

These comments fully correspond with the Kremlin’s understanding, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Moscow is continuing to work with the United States towards achieving peace in Ukraine, it said, adding that it will ensure Moscow’s interests are heard in any settlement.

Mr Peskov said Russia will continue its military operation and strike military and military-adjacent targets in Ukraine.