By Max Hunder
Russia – Russia (Reuters) – Russia has occupied more than 50,000 soldiers near the Sumi region in northeastern Ukraine, including some of the best, but Kiev has taken steps to prevent them from carrying out large-scale offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Russia appears to be preparing for Ukraine’s summer offensive, while Kiev awaits Moscow’s memorandum that sets out its conditions for a ceasefire negotiation.
Sumy is spread across the borders of Russia’s Kursk region, and Ukraine previously grabbed and held a bag of land for months before being pushed away almost entirely last month, although it said it still occupies some small areas there.
“Their largest and most powerful force is currently on the Kursk front,” Zelenskiy told reporters on Tuesday. “Put our troops out of the Kursk region and make offensive operations against the Sumi region.”
Putin has said he hopes for a “buffer zone” along the border between Russia and Ukraine. Zelenskiy said he believed Russia wanted to carve Ukrainian territory about 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep.
Russia has recently occupied at least four border villages in the region and has been gradually crawling in the front line section near the city of Kostiantinivka in eastern Ukraine in the past few weeks.
However, the Ukrainian leader said the Russians were pushed back 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in two days.
Zelenskiy told reporters in a briefing that his government was ready for further peace negotiations in any form. He said he hopes the next round is on a technical level, but said he will prepare for a tee meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He said he did not want the United States to leave the Ukrainian peace process because Washington threatened to do without progress.
Meeting venue
Ukraine and Russia changed 1,000 prisoners each after a meeting held in Istanbul two weeks ago, failing to generate a ceasefire sought by Ukraine, the United States and Europe.
Zelensky said he sees Türkiye, the Vatican and Switzerland as the most realistic venues for further negotiations with Russia. He said Malta and unspecified African countries also expressed interest in presiding the talks.
Reuters had previously reported that Moscow did not regard the Vatican as a serious place for negotiations.
Zelenskiy said Russia said it would hold talks in Belarus, a suggestion from Kiev, which was considered unconfidence and impossible given that Russian troops use the country as a launch pad for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He also said he will attend the next G7 summit after being invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, where the country currently holds the group's rotational presidency. He added that he may attend the next EU summit.
Speaking about Ukraine’s domestic arms production, Zelensky said he hopes to fully fund Ukraine’s available capacity this year to fully fund the rapidly expanding industry.
(Reported by Max Hunder; Editors by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ros Russell)
