Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv sets deadline for Putin-Zelensky summit after peace talks fail to stop bombing

Ukraine has called for a peace summit to be held between Russian president Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky by the end of August, urging Moscow to show it is serious about wanting to end the war.

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s chief delegate at peace talks in Istanbul yesterday, said he presented the Russian side with a proposal for the meeting.

“By agreeing to this proposal, Russia can clearly demonstrate its constructive approach,” Mr Umerov said after the third round of peace talks in Turkey was wrapped up in less than an hour.

In response, Russia’s chief delegate Vladimir Medinsky said the point of a leaders’ meeting should be to sign an agreement, not to “discuss everything from scratch”.

The talks took place just over a week after US president Donald Trump threatened heavy new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days.

There was no sign of any progress towards that goal, although both sides said there was discussion of further humanitarian exchanges following a series of prisoner swaps, the latest of which took place yesterday.

Hundreds of people gathered in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to lodge their protest with the Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration for passing a controversial bill tightening restrictions on its anti-corruption agencies, presenting the war-hit nation with its biggest domestic turmoil since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday passed amendments to allow the country’s general prosecutor, appointed by the president, strict control over two anti-corruption bodies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo).

Thousands of people, including veterans, took to the streets of Kyiv on Tuesday evening to protest against president Volodymyr Zelensky’s anti-corruption measures.

The demonstrations, which have reportedly spread to Lviv and Dnipro, are the first public protests against the Ukrainian president since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Some of those outside Mr Zelensky’s presidential office claimed Ukraine was “turning into Russia”, with placards reading “welcome to Russia”, according to reports.

“We chose Europe, not autocracy,” read one placard by a demonstrator. Another read: “My father did not die for this.”

So why are people protesting, and what are the anti-corruption measures? The Independent takes a closer look below.

US president Donald Trump touted a recent deal between the US and Nato whereby European allies would purchase weapons and send them to Ukraine as it fights Russia.

“They’re going to pay the United States of America 100 per cent of the cost of all military equipment, and much of it will go to Ukraine,” Mr Trump said in remarks at an artificial intelligence conference in Washington.

Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mass attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering several fires in residential and other buildings in the early hours today.

In Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said two floors of a multi-storey apartment building had been set ablaze. Other fires broke out on the roof of a two-storey residence, in kiosks and at a petrol station.

The city’s historic centre, a Unesco World Heritage Site, was also hit, he said.

Mr Kiper said details on casualties were being compiled.

Volodymyr Zelensky has gathered the chiefs of anti-corruption agencies with law enforcement bosses as he looks to show unity during a fractious week for Kyiv.

“It was a much-needed meeting — a frank and constructive conversation that truly helps,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media.

“We all share a common enemy: the Russian occupiers. And defending the Ukrainian state requires a strong enough law enforcement and anti-corruption system — one that ensures a real sense of justice.”

Mr Zelensky is facing heavy pressure from European officials and the Ukrainian public after his government pushed through laws which will curb the powers of the anti-corruption agencies which have led reform of the country since 2014.

At the meeting were representatives of: the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, the State Bureau of Investigation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Prosecutor General.

Top EU officials have warned Ukraine of possible setback to its membership of Nato amid fresh wave of protests in Ukraine over changes in the anti-corruption law.

Activists yesterday called for more protests of a new law that they say weakens Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs, following the first major anti-government demonstration in over three years of war.

Fighting entrenched corruption is crucial for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU and maintain access to billions of dollars in Western aid in the war.

“Limiting the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency hampers Ukraine’s way towards the EU,” German foreign minister Johann Wadephul warned in a post on X.

EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius, also on X, noted: “In war, trust between the fighting nation and its leadership is more important than modern weapons — difficult to build and to keep, but easy to lose with one significant mistake by the leadership.”

In just two months, every new digital device in Russia will come equipped with a brand new messenger app, named Max. Beneath its playful white-and-blue logo lies software that experts believe could allow the Kremlin to dramatically expand its capacity to spy on the Russian public.

The app, launched in March by Russian tech company VK, will be installed on every new device sold in Russia from September this year. But there are fears it will work as a “spy programme”, allowing Russia’s FSB security service to establish a rigid surveillance programme.

The app will provide not only a space for messaging and video calls, but will be a broader information system with access to government services and mobile payments, analysts told The Independent. With servers based in Russia, Max will be subject to Russian law, which grants the FSB to have access to certain materials.

At 40 minutes, the meeting was even shorter than the two sides’ previous encounters on 16 May and 2 June, which lasted a combined total of under three hours.

Before the talks, the Kremlin had played down expectations, describing the two sides’ positions as diametrically opposed and saying no one should expect miracles.

Oleksandr Bevz, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelensky meeting in August because that would fall within the deadline set by Donald Trump for a deal.

Mr Putin turned down a previous challenge from Mr Zelensky to meet in person and has said he does not see him as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when Mr Zelensky’s five-year mandate expired last year.