Here are the highlights from the last 24 hours related to the conflict:
– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Switzerland on Friday, ahead of a major conference on peace in Ukraine, which starts this Saturday and is expected to bring together dozens of heads of state and government.
– Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday described freezing Russian assets in the West and helping Ukraine resist Russia as “theft” and vowed to respond after an agreement was reached at the G7. He also called the Ukraine peace summit a “distraction tactic” and set his conditions: Kyiv must withdraw its troops from four of its regions and abandon NATO for a negotiated peace.
– In an interview with Italian news channel SkyTG24, Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Hitler-style” ultimatum that Kiev give up territories in exchange for peace talks.
– Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, assessed on Friday that the defense agreement signed the previous day between the United States and Ukraine was a simple “paper” without value.
– Russia announced that it had shot down 87 Ukrainian drones overnight, 70 of which targeted the Rostov region (south), the headquarters of Russian operations in Ukraine.
– The Ukrainian Air Force, for its part, announced that it repelled attacks by “31 Russian air strike assets” from Thursday to Friday, including 10 cruise missiles and 3 ballistic missiles.
– Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries have delivered an “agreement in principle” to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova starting on June 25, the Belgian presidency of the Council of the European Union announced.
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