Kremlin Sends Mixed Signals Through Week of Statements and Actions
Across the capital, more than 20 sites were hit by Russian drones and missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
A Russian missile strike on a Kyiv apartment building has killed at least 24 people, including three children, after Ukrainian authorities raised the death toll from yesterday’s attack.
The updated figure makes the assault one of the deadliest single Russian strikes on a Ukrainian city in recent months.
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Across the capital, more than 20 sites were hit by Russian drones and missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The barrage came only days after Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference in Moscow last Saturday that he believed the war was nearing an end.
He then floated former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a possible mediator in peace talks — a suggestion that appeared certain to be rejected by European leaders. That dismissal followed swiftly from Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief.
Mr Schröder and Mr Putin maintained close ties in the 2000s, and the former German chancellor later took roles at at least two Russian state energy companies.
In Kyiv today, Volodymyr Zelensky lays flowers at the apartment block that was struck by Russia
Mr Putin’s claim that the war was drawing to a close may, in reality, have been aimed less at foreign capitals than at Russians at home.
Public fatigue has been growing as the war drags on and the strain on Russia’s economy deepens. Food prices are still climbing.
Russia’s official inflation rate stands at just under 6%, although the real figure may be significantly higher.
At the same time, the Kremlin — through its ubiquitous spokesperson Dmitry Peskov — continues to argue that Kyiv bears responsibility for ending the war, sidestepping the fact that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Tuesday, Mr Peskov repeated the Russian president’s assertion that the war was nearing its conclusion, but yesterday he also said Europe should not expect to play a part in peace negotiations.
The Kremlin appears intent on tying American efforts to end the conflict into a knot. Little in what Mr Putin or his officials say about the peace process is straightforward.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure continue, killing civilians — including children — as they sleep.
