Kyiv has sent Moscow an offer to hold a new round of peace talks in the coming week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after negotiations between the countries last month made no progress toward ending the ongoing war.
"Everything should be done to achieve a cease-fire," Zelenskyy said in his regular evening address on July 19.
"The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions," he added.
Zelenskyy also reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sit-down with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying: "A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace -- lasting peace."
Two rounds of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in May and early June secured large-scale prisoner swaps and deals to return the bodies of slain soldiers.
But they made no breakthrough in achieving a cease-fire to potentially end the military conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Zelenskyy said Rustem Umerov, the newly appointed head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, had sent Moscow the offer to hold the meeting in the coming week, but did not provide further details.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Leadership Reshuffle Seen Strengthening Trump Administration TiesUmerov, a former defense minister, headed the Ukrainian delegation at both rounds of the peace talks in Turkey.
In a clip aired by Russian state television on July 20, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was ready to move toward a peace settlement with Ukraine, but he stressed that Moscow’s primary goal remains achieving the objectives it set at the start of the invasion.
"President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy," Peskov said.
"The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear," he pointed out.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede the partially occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson, including the parts that are still controlled by Kyiv.
Moscow has also called for strict limitations on the size of Ukraine’s armed forces and the extent of foreign military cooperation with Kyiv.
Peskov’s full interview with state television reporter Pavel Zarubin was scheduled to be aired in the evening on July 20.
Moscow has repeatedly said it is ready for a fresh round of negotiations but has since intensified its relentless air strikes on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy’s comments came just hours after Russia fired nearly 380 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles at nearly a dozen Ukrainian towns and cities, killing at least one person and wounding others, according to Ukrainian emergency officials.
A nine-story apartment building in the Black Sea port of Odesa was hit, killing one woman and wounding several others, the officials said.
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'Hiding And Praying': Ukrainian Civilians Shaken By Widespread Overnight Attacks
Ukraine responded with a barrage of drone attacks overnight and in the early hours of July 20, with some drones heading toward the Russian capital, Moscow.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on July 20 its forces had downed 364 drones in the previous 24 hours, including at least 23 over the Moscow region.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that by midday local time more than 20 Ukrainian drones had been shot down as they headed for the capital.
The drone strikes forced Moscow’s four major airports -- Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky -– to redirect a total of 134 flights, according to Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia.
The strikes also damaged several high-rise buildings and cars were set on fire in Moscow’s Zelenograd region, but Sobyanin said that the damage was not significant.
Rail traffic was disrupted in Russia’s Rostov region, bordering Ukraine, after fragments from intercepted drones fell onto rail infrastructure, affecting 50 long-distance trains and local traffic, regional authorities reported.
Officials said a woman has been injured in Rostov after private homes caught alight from falling drone fragments.
Kyiv has said its attacks on Russian border regions seek to disrupt military supplies, noting that Russian civilian damage is much less than that inflicted by Moscow’s forces on Ukrainian civilians.
Oleksandr Pertsovskiy, the head of Ukrainian Railways said in a social media post that there was a spike in Russian attacks targeting civilian trains, transporting non-military goods over the past week. Trains transporting coal were being hit in particular, he said.
Russia also claimed on July 20 that its forces have seized the village of Bila Hora in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The claim could not be independently verified.