It’s been another night of drones, fires and blackouts — and behind the smoke, Zelenskyy is doubling down on calls to sit face-to-face with Putin.

As reported by cbinews.tv, Russia and Ukraine have traded fresh, deadly air attacks just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met European leaders in London.

What happened overnight?

Early Monday, Russian strikes killed five people and left 14 injured in Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhia region, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. He added that drones and shelling damaged infrastructure, homes and cars.

It didn’t stop there. Over in Odesa, Russian attacks on energy sites knocked out power for more than 1,000 customers, according to Governor Oleh Kiper on Telegram. This came a day after Russian forces targeted a nuclear fuel storage facility near the defunct Chornobyl power plant.

Ukraine hit back with its own strikes on Russian targets. A drone struck a train in annexed Crimea, killing the assistant driver and injuring the driver, said the peninsula’s Russian-installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, on Telegram.

Russia’s air defences were busy too. They repelled an overnight drone attack on energy infrastructure in the Volgograd region. Falling debris sparked a fire at a pumping station in Zhirnovsky district, Governor Andrei Bocharov said, though thankfully no one was hurt.

And at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a loading complex caught fire after a drone strike. Local authorities said 130 firefighters were tackling the blaze, with no injuries reported.

The push for talks

All this comes after Zelenskyy sat down with the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in London on Sunday. The so-called E3 group — PM Keir Starmer, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron — backed his call for direct ceasefire talks with Russia.

Zelenskyy had already floated the idea last Thursday in an open letter to Vladimir Putin, saying he was ready for a face-to-face and a “full ceasefire”. Putin turned it down, saying he didn’t see the point right now.

Still, the E3 “commended” Zelenskyy’s push for peace and his proposal for direct dialogue with Putin, with both US and European involvement.

“For Ukraine, it has always been a priority that Europe’s position and voice in the negotiations be strong,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

Source: cbinews.tv

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