Russia has set a new condition for Ukraine to settle the war - the decommissioning of all Western weapons, DPA reported, BTA reported.
“I need not mention that all these remnants [of Western weapons] must be destroyed“, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko in an interview with the online edition of “Izvestia“.
According to him, this must be done under international supervision and he added that “all international algorithms are known“.
Russia has made several key demands for a halt to hostilities. Most of them are unacceptable to Kiev and its European allies, DPA notes. Moscow lays claim to much of its neighbor's territory and also wants Ukraine to stay out of NATO.
The new US administration of President Donald Trump, who is seen as a mediator, has already agreed to these two conditions, at least in part, and has begun to put pressure on Kiev.
The Ukrainian government has so far flatly rejected Moscow's demands to reduce the size of Ukraine's armed forces and for restrictions on armaments, citing security concerns.
The demand to destroy Western weapons is new. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Western countries have provided Ukraine with weapons worth about 140 billion euros, according to the German Institute for World Economics in Kiel.
In May, Ukraine and Russia held direct talks to end the war. They took place in Istanbul for the first time since 2022. However, the positions of the two sides are still seriously divergent. Meanwhile, several people were injured last night in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and surrounding areas in Russian drone attacks, officials said.
Two people were hospitalized and one woman was later discharged, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on “Telegram“. According to the capital's military administration, the second injured person - a man born in 2004 - is in serious condition.
According to preliminary information, one person was also injured in strikes in the vicinity of Kiev. There are also reports of damage in Cherkasy and Zaporizhia regions. According to information in the Ukrainian media, Russia last night directed about 140 combat drones and decoy drones against Ukraine, of which 125 were shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force. This is significantly less than last week, when Russia used almost 500 drones in one night.