Washington [US], May 29: The situation in Ukraine is heating up both on the military and diplomatic fronts, with US President Donald Trump showing growing impatience with the peace process.
On May 28, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Ukraine had carried out one of its largest drone attacks, launching nearly 300 drones to attack Russian territory overnight, according to AFP. Russian air defense forces intercepted 296 UAVs, of which at least 42 were shot down in the Moscow region.
Previously, Kyiv announced that for three consecutive nights until the morning of May 26, Russia had launched more than 900 UAVs to attack Ukraine. Yesterday, Russia continued to launch 88 UAVs and 5 ballistic missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on May 27 that Russia was concentrating more than 50,000 troops near Sumy province in northeastern Ukraine to carry out a new advance with the intention of establishing a security buffer zone.
The rapid developments in the war have occurred in the context of no breakthrough on the diplomatic front. Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine has not yet received a memorandum from Russia on the requirements for a peace agreement. After a phone call with US President Donald Trump on May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum, setting out the framework for a peace agreement, including the timing of a ceasefire. Reuters yesterday quoted three Russian sources as saying that the conditions for Mr. Putin to agree to end the war were that Western leaders commit in writing not to expand NATO toward Russia, that Ukraine must be a neutral country, that sanctions on Moscow be lifted and that Russian speakers in Ukraine be protected. The Kremlin has not commented on this information.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky announced his readiness to participate in a three-way meeting with President Putin and President Trump to end the conflict, while calling on Washington to increase sanctions on Moscow, especially in the energy and banking sectors. According to US media, the White House owner is considering increasing sanctions on Russia, as early as this week, but could change his mind.
Earlier, President Trump continued to express his dissatisfaction with President Putin and said that the Russian leader was "playing with fire". "If it weren't for me, really bad things would have happened to Russia," Trump wrote on social media. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev responded strongly to Trump's comment when he said the only bad thing he knew was World War III. US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg criticized Medvedev's raising of fears about World War III as reckless and called on Russia to immediately cease fire. Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that he would soon announce information about the next round of negotiations with Ukraine, according to Reuters. On the same day, Mr. Zelensky went to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz with speculation that Mr. Merz might agree to provide long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper