RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian attack ruined ‘secret’ peace talks – WaPo

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region has derailed secretive Qatar-mediated talks between Moscow and Kiev that could have paved the way for a “partial ceasefire,”the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing sources.

An unnamed diplomat told the paper that both sides intended to send delegations to Doha to negotiate a landmark deal that would halt mutually devastating strikes on energy infrastructure. However, when Ukrainian troops launched a large-scale attack on Russian territory last week, the planned talks were thrown into doubt, the article said.

According to one WaPo source, Russian officials postponed the meeting, describing the attack on Kursk Region as “an escalation.” An unnamed diplomat claimed, however, that Russia “didn’t call off the talks, they said give us time.”

Talks to end the infrastructure strikes have been going on for the past two months, the paper reported, adding that only minor details of the agreement needed to be worked out before the summit. Some of those involved in the discussions even reportedly hoped they could pave the way for a broader agreement to end the conflict.

Senior officials in Kiev, however, were more skeptical about the negotiations, estimating their chance of success at 20% or less, the Washington Post said. After Russia decided to take time-out, the Ukrainian delegation reportedly wanted to go to Doha regardless, but Qatar refused, seeing no point in such a format of talks.

The Post noted that Ukrainian officials are increasingly worried about whether the country will be able to survive winter if Russia continues to pound its energy infrastructure. Kiev estimated in May that as much as 50% of Ukraine’s energy capacity had been knocked out.

”We have one chance to get through this winter, and that’s if the Russians won’t launch any new attacks on the grid,” a Washington Post source said.

However, a Russian academic suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be in the mood to make any deals with Kiev after the Kursk incursion. The Russian leader said that any peace talks with Ukraine are impossible as long as it conducts “indiscriminate strikes on civilians… or tries to threaten nuclear energy facilities.”

The last time Ukraine and Russia held peace talks was in Istanbul in the spring of 2022. While the negotiations initially made progress, they later collapsed, with Moscow blaming the interference of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who allegedly advised Kiev to keep fighting. Johnson has denied the allegation.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says Ukraine used Western rockets to destroy bridge in Kursk region

Russia's foreign ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets, likely U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.

"For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS," Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said late on Friday on the Telegram messaging app.

"As a result of the attack on the bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovo district, it was completely destroyed, and volunteers who were assisting the evacuated civilian population were killed."

There was no indication of how many volunteers were killed in Friday's attack.

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Kyiv's forces had advanced between 1 and 3 kilometres (0.6 to 1.9 miles) in some areas in the Kursk region on Friday, 11 days since beginning an incursion into the western Russian territory.

Kyiv has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150 square kilometres (440 square miles) in the region since Aug. 6.

Russia's defence ministry, cited by the Interfax news agency, said on Saturday that Russian forces repelled several Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region, but did not report recapturing any territory.

It said Ukrainian forces had unsuccessfully attempted to advance towards the villages of Kauchuk and Alekseyevskiy which lie roughly halfway between the Ukrainian border and the Kursk nuclear power plant.

In a separate statement, the ministry accused Ukraine of planning to attack the plant in a false flag operation.

Reuters could not independently verify either side's battlefield accounts.

Russia has accused the West of supporting and encouraging Ukraine's first ground offensive on Russian territory and said Kyiv's "terrorist invasion" would not change the course of the war.

The U.S. HIMARS rockets provided to Ukraine have a range of up to about 80km (50 miles).

The United States, which has said it cannot allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war he launched in February 2022, so far deems the surprise incursion a protective move that justifies the use of U.S. weaponry, officials in Washington said.

RT/Reuters