WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia's drones, missiles target Ukraine's critical infrastructure, Ukraine says

Russia launched drone and missile attacks targeting civilian and critical infrastructure across wide areas of Ukraine, Kyiv's Air Force said on Sunday.

Preliminary information did not show any casualties in the attacks, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia and Ukraine have increased their air attacks on each other's territory in recent months, targeting critical military, energy and transport infrastructure.

The air force said Russia attacked the central Poltava region with two ballistic missiles fired from the Iskander ballistic missile system, and three surface-to-air missiles over the Donetsk region in the east.

Filip Pronin, governor of Poltava region, wrote on Telegram that the attack struck an industrial site in the city of Kremenchuk, sparking a fire. Pictures posted on social media showed emergency crews battling a blaze.

Further southeast in the Zaporizhzhia region, Governor Yuri Malashko said an infrastructure site had been hit in a drone attack. Emergency crews were at the site, Malashko said, but gave no details of damage or casualties.

Ukraine's air defence systems destroyed four of eight Russia-launched drones overnight, the air force said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

** Russian missile hits Ukraine's Kremenchuk district for second day, no casualties

A Russian missile hit an industrial site in the central Ukrainian district of Kremenchuk on Sunday for a second straight day, the regional governor said, adding the strike had caused no casualties.

"For the second day in a row, the enemy is attacking Poltava region," Poltava Regional Governor Filip Pronin wrote on the Telegram messaging app, noting that the target was in Kremenchuk district.

Pronin later said there had been no casualties.

A missile attack on Saturday hit an industrial site in the same area, triggering a fire. No casualties were reported in that incident.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia open to substantive proposals for diplomatic settlement in Ukraine — MFA

Russia remains open to truly substantive proposals for a diplomatic settlement of the situation around Ukraine, said Alexey Polishchuk, the head of the Second Department of the CIS countries at the Russian Foreign Ministry.

He said there’s no hope now that the West will change its approach to the Ukrainian settlement.

"The current Kiev leadership are puppets, first of all, of Washington, London and Brussels. They benefit from escalating the Ukrainian crisis, which they are using not only to try to accomplish the goal of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ to Russia, but also to implement measures that are aimed at weakening the economies of their competitors from continental Europe, who have been zombified by the ‘Russian threat’ and do not realize the real threats to their security," the diplomat said in an interview with TASS.

"On its part, Russia has always remained open to truly substantive proposals on how to overcome the current crisis through political and diplomatic methods," he said.

Reuters/Tass