“It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story.” That was President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s verdict, posted on X, on Moscow’s claim that its forces had taken the eastern city of Kostiantynivka.
Russia said on Friday that the city, a target Moscow has long sought in its push through the Donetsk region, was under its control. Ukraine denied it and said its troops still hold the ground.
Zelenskyy added a challenge. “If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war,” he wrote.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mocked the idea on Russian radio. Kostiantynivka, he said, was already part of Russia, and the invitation for Zelenskyy to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow still stood. Zelenskyy wrote to Putin last month asking for face-to-face talks as a step toward peace, but he has long refused any meeting in the Russian capital.
A ceasefire offer, and an accusation
On Sunday, Russia’s Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of refusing to stop shelling the city so that Moscow could hand over the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The ministry said it had proposed a six-hour ceasefire in and around Kostiantynivka on Monday and gave Kyiv until 0900 GMT on Sunday to reply.
Elsewhere, Russian-installed Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov said one person was killed and two others injured, one seriously, in a Ukrainian attack on the occupied peninsula in the early hours of Sunday. He gave no further details on Telegram.
Calls with Trump
The latest exchanges followed phone calls between US President Donald Trump and both leaders. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Trump spoke with Putin for nearly 90 minutes on Saturday, ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara, and offered to help him find a solution to a war now in its fifth year.
Zelenskyy also spoke with Trump on Saturday. They discussed the 1,200km (745 miles) front line, he said. “There is a real prospect to end this war and American resolve will have a crucial meaning,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that the two agreed to keep talking at the summit this week.
A senior US official confirmed Trump will meet Zelenskyy on Wednesday to discuss “how we can end the war.” The official described a stalled front: “The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months and neither side is making a lot of progress. The president feels a real sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop.”
