MOSCOW, Aug 02 (AFP): Russia wants a "lasting and stable peace" in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, adding that Moscow's conditions for peace remained unchanged as Kyiv repeated its call for a leaders' meeting.
Putin has consistently rejected calls to pause his nearly three-and-a-half year assault on Ukraine despite growing pressure from US President Donald Trump, who issued a 10-day ultimatum earlier this week to stop the fighting.
"We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries," Putin told reporters.
But he added that "the conditions (from the Russian side) certainly remain the same". Russia has frequently called on Ukraine to effectively cede control of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable.
Ukraine has been pleading with its Western backers to send more weapons for its troops to withstand Moscow's daily attacks and levy more sanctions on Russia and its trading partners.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing for a meeting with Putin to end the conflict, with Kyiv proposing talks by the end of August.
Zelensky on Friday repeated that call. "We understand who makes the decisions in Russia and who must end this war," he said on social media. Ukraine was ready "to meet at the level of leaders at any time", he added.
Putin, speaking alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, also said Moscow had started mass producing Oreshnik-its hypersonic nuclear-capable missile.
Russia used Oreshnik to strike the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine last year before announcing it could deploy the missile in Belarus, its close ally.
"Our specialists, both Belarusian military specialists and Russian specialists, have chosen a place for future positions," Putin said. "Work is now underway to prepare these positions. So, most likely, we will close this issue by the end of the year," he added.
Ukrainian drone strikes
kill 3 persons in Russia
Ukrainian drone strikes killed three people and wounded two others overnight in western Russia, regional governors said on Saturday.
One woman was killed and two other people were wounded in an attack on an enterprise in Penza, the region's governor, Oleg Melnichenko, wrote on Telegram.
An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram.
In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site's buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said.
"The military repelled a massive air attack during the night," destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram.
Russia's defence ministry said its air defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory -- 34 over the Rostov region-in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning.
In Ukraine's central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, overnight Russian drone attacks left three people wounded, governor Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram. Several buildings, homes and cars were damaged, he said. Russian forces have claimed advances in Dnipropetrovsk, recently announcing the capture of two villages there, part of Moscow's accelerated capture of territory in July, according to AFP's analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Kyiv denies any Russian presence in the Dnipropetrovsk area. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire in the more than three-year conflict, said Friday that he wanted peace but that his demands for ending Moscow's military offensive were "unchanged".
Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders.
