Key Points
- Russia said Ukraine must destroy all foreign weapons under international oversight.
- Russian drone strikes hit Kyiv, injuring civilians and damaging homes.
- Over 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers’ bodies have been returned in ongoing exchanges.
Russia has set Ukraine a new condition for the settlement of the war, now in its fourth year: the scrapping of all foreign weapons.
“It goes without saying that all these remnants (of foreign weapons) must be destroyed,” deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said in an interview with the online news website Izvestia.
This should be done under international supervision, Grushko said, adding that “all international algorithms are known”.
Russia has made several key demands for the cessation of its attacks.
Most are unacceptable to Ukraine and its European allies.
Russia is claiming large parts of Ukraine for itself and also insists Ukraine cannot join the NATO military alliance.
The Ukrainian government has so far categorically rejected Russia’s simultaneous demands for a reduction in the size of the armed forces and for arms restrictions due to security concerns.
The demand now being made for the destruction of weapons already received is new.
Since the full-scale Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukraine’s allies have supported it with arms worth about $247 billion ($US161 billion), according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
In May, Ukraine and Russia held direct negotiations on ending the war in Istanbul for the first time since 2022.
However, the positions of both sides are still far apart.
Meanwhile, several people were injured overnight in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and surrounding area in renewed Russian drone attacks, officials said on Monday local time.
Two people were taken to hospital and one woman was later released, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
According to Kyiv’s military administration, the second victim, a man born in 2004, was seriously injured.
The drone strikes damaged residential buildings.
Ukrainian reports said Russian forces launched about 140 combat drones and decoys during the night, 125 of which were intercepted by Ukraine’s air force.
The numbers involved are considerably less than last week, when Russia’s army deployed almost 500 drones in one night.
Following the handover of more than 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, Russian authorities declared their willingness to return more remains.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, another 2,239 bodies could be transferred.
At the weekend, the fifth batch of more than 1,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers was handed over under an agreement reached during recent talks in Istanbul.
Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of a total of 6,057 soldiers were returned in the five handovers.
In return, the Russian side received 78 bodies, Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said.
The exchange of prisoners will continue, he announced on Telegram.
This involves seriously injured people along the front line.
The Russian army has been steadily advancing for months and the Ukrainian side is therefore unable to recover its own casualties.
