The Russian invasion in Ukraine develops in two parallel worlds. In high spheres, conversations revolve around peace, high fire and agreements, but on the ground, attacks between the two countries remain a constant. In the early hours of this Sunday, a Russian offensive with drones about kyiv has left at least three dead, including a five -year -old girl, just a few hours before the start of a series of meetings that have already begun and that will also last on Monday enter Saudi Arabia to profile that path to peace and try to seal a 30 -day truce.
In these hours before the meetings in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, whose government exercises as a mediator, the Kremlin has assured that the telephone call last Tuesday between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the American, Donald Trump, was “a step towards a face -to -face meeting”, and that the conversations in Riad will also go in that direction, according to the Russian agency of Interfax news. The Bloomberg agency informs, citing sources aware of the conversations, that the USA hopes to reach a wide high fire on April 20.
However, it is not even clear how these meetings are going to develop. This Sunday remains among Ukrainian and American delegates, as can be seen from a message from the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Rustem Uumerov, which leads the kyiv delegation. “We are going to apply the guideline of the president of Ukraine to achieve fair peace and reinforce security. The agenda includes proposals to protect energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Today we are working on complex technical issues: our delegation includes energy experts and military representatives of naval and aerial components,” he announced on social networks.
Washington seeks to keep a three -band match, but without them feeling at the same Russian table and Ukraine, which do not maintain high -level direct contacts since 2022. “One group will be in a room, another group in another room, and will sit and speak, go and come, as a kind of itinerant diplomacy,” Kellogg explained, special envoy of President Donald Trump to Ukraine, in the news of the ABC television network.
Ukraine, however, is reluctant to this formula, although on Saturday, Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the National Security Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament, indicated that the idea is to meet again on Monday. The Kremlin, meanwhile, also has meetings for that same day. The versions that offer the White House and the spokesmen of Ukraine and Russia about these conversations to three bands and it is not clear where they will advance in the next few days, but Trump maintains their enthusiasm. This Saturday he declared, aboard the Air Force One (the presidential plane), that the efforts to contain the climb of the war between Russia and Ukraine are “to some extent” under control.
In any case, this series of conversations should serve to seal at least a high fire in the attacks on energy infrastructure and guarantee the safety of navigation in the black Sea. The special envoy of the United States, Steve Witkoff, has expressed his optimism in an interview in Fox News: “I think [Putin] He wants peace ”(…)” I think they will see in Saudi Arabia on Monday some real progress, particularly in terms of a high fire in the Black Sea ships. “
For his part, the United States National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said this Sunday that the control line will subsequently be addressed, “which is the Royal Front.” “That comes into the details of verification mechanisms [de lo acordado]the maintenance of peace, the freezing of the lines where they are. And then, of course, the broader and more permanent peace, ”he added.
Since his arrival at the White House, on January 20, Trump has launched a process to try to achieve peace between the two countries. He has managed to start the process after pressing the Ukrainian government to fold, such as the transfer of a part of the territory or the exploitation of minerals and rare earths by the United States in exchange for their protection, as well as the control of nuclear power plants – at least Zaporiyia. To bend to the kyiv government, Trump temporarily arrested military and intelligence aid. However, with Russia it has limited itself to launching some verbal threats of sanctions.
In recent weeks, this rapid process has been completed with a series of meetings between the United States and Ukraine in the Saudi city of Yeda that resulted in a first high agreement subject to Moscow’s decision. Subsequently, Trump spoke on the phone with Putin, which only started a partial truce that for now has not been put into practice.
Daily attacks
In any case, the atmosphere that is breathed is not the optimal and within the borders of Ukraine, nothing similar to peace is seen or heard. Explosions are heard, rather. Like those in the early morning of this Sunday, in which Moscow has attacked with 147 drones several Ukrainian provinces, according to the country’s air defense force. Of those devices, 97 have been destroyed by the anti -aircraft defense systems and another 25 did not achieve their objectives.
The most serious attack has been the “massive” bombardment with drones on kyiv, qualifying used by the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitchko. Since midnight, very strong explosions could be heard in some of the most central districts, the State Attorney General’s Office has reported, which has initiated an investigation by considering the possible war crimes. “Russia’s systematic and deliberate terror against civilians contradicts his own peace statements,” said Prime Minister Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha. “The whole world understands that Russia is the only one that is prolonging this war,” said the president in his evening speech on Sunday, adding that it is necessary to increase the pressure on the Moscow regime.
In the district of Holosiivskyi, in the center of the capital, a five -year -old girl, 35 while the mother, 26, has been hospitalized. This family had moved from, to kyiv in search of security.
In the Dnipró neighborhood, a building was damaged and an 80 -year -old woman died in one of the apartments on the last floor. Three other people were treated for panic attacks. In addition, a 29 -year -old man was injured by the fall of remains of drones. They have also registered damage in the districts of Podil and Pechersk. The city of Zaporiyia has also suffered attacks this weekend that have claimed the lives of three other people and wounded to 16 more, according to the authorities.
As for the Ukraine response, according to Moscow, the attacks from Ukraine killed a person in the province of Rostov, while their defenses destroyed 59 Ukrainian drones that were directed to southern regions of the country.
In the military field, the activity is also intense. The Russian Defense Ministry has reported in its daily part that it has “eliminated” 1,180 Ukrainian soldiers and the Ukrainian General Staff, on the other hand, has realized other 1,475 “liquidated” enemies and the recovery of the Nadiya town, in the province of Lugansk.
According to Zelenski, Russia has used more than 1,580 guided bombs against Ukraine in the last week. They are not data that can be contrasted, and, therefore, they cannot be taken to the letter, but they serve to demonstrate that a very different reality is lived on the battlefield in which the fighting remains equally fierce as in the last three years.
