Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russian targets overnight as U.S. envoys hold talks on wider European security arrangements, alarming European leaders and raising questions about NATO's future role.
By Hermes Vector
Ukraine fired almost 1,200 drones at Russian targets overnight in one of its biggest aerial attacks since Moscow’s invasion nearly five years ago.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 1,198 Ukrainian long-range drones between late Thursday and early Friday. Strikes on three Russian regions killed seven people, including a 12-year-old, and wounded 17, local officials said.
After two days of talks with Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi this week, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went in person to brief Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was meeting with European Union leaders in Dublin, Ireland.
Kushner said Russia has agreed to include Europe in upcoming talks, after Moscow's long insistence that the continent’s governments were part of the problem because they were supporting Ukraine.
Europe’s presence at the negotiating table will allow negotiators “to address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia,” Kushner said on X.
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Friday that Europe must insist on a ceasefire before taking the negotiations further — the opposite of what Putin demands.
“If we start to talk about what Russia is asking regarding the security architecture, we actually walk into the traps that Russia is setting us,” she said in Dublin.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden insisted that Europe must take its fate into its own hands.
“We cannot let neither the Americans nor the Russians decide about our future,” Frieden said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed that Russia is open for contacts with the Europeans.
“Once we understand (Europe’s) true intentions and their readiness to facilitate the peace process, then it will be possible to make a decision on holding a dialogue regarding a settlement in Ukraine in an expanded format,” Peskov said.
The inclusion of wider European security arrangements in the talks has alarmed European leaders and placed a question mark over NATO’s future role. The Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment late Thursday that Moscow is aiming “to dismantle NATO and the post-Cold War European security architecture.”
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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