TRANSCRIPT
The latest round of aerial attacks on Ukraine has left six dead and 19 wounded.
Russia targeted the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson in the east of Ukraine where the invaders have gained a strong foothold in the country.
The attacks on Zaporizhzhia hit residential areas, a bus station and a clinic, with this man saying his family were close to being killed.
"Over there, where people are clearing glass now, we stood there, five of us. We heard a whistle and then we were hurled back by an explosion wave. Thanks God, all are alive."
The strikes come just days before what could be a pivotal diplomatic moment: a meeting between United State President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the U-S state of Alaska this Friday [[15 Aug]].
The surprise announcement of the bilateral talks came weeks after Mr Trump had been threatening new sanctions against Russia if they failed to end the three-and-a-half-year war before last Friday.
Dr Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, says it's a backflip that could see Russia in a favourable position to negotiate terms for a ceasefire.
"What we've seen over the past 24 hours is an absolutely extraordinary development. An astonishing U-turn, it would seem. The most emphatic retreat from a Trumpian deadline. Rather than impose any of the pain, make good on any of his threats, he appears to have rewarded Putin in this extraordinary way by agreeing to a summit."
A White House official says President Trump is open to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy attending, but preparations are currently underway for only a bilateral meeting.
President Putin himself ruled out meeting President Zelenskyy last week.
But U-S Vice President J-D Vance tells Fox News that President Trump has changed the Russian leader's stance and a meeting between the two rival leaders will be scheduled soon.
"One of the most important log jams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with Zelenskyy, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change. We're at a point now where we're now trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict."
Mr Vance says the Trump administration is hoping to reach a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine, warning that both sides would probably be unhappy with the outcome.
"We're gonna try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with. It's not gonna make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians, probably at the end of the day, are gonna be unhappy with it."
U-S President Donald Trump says he expects some form of land swap to be a feature of any ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.
"Well, you're looking at territory that's been fought over for three and a half years with, you know, a lot of Russians have died, a lot Ukrainians have died. So we're looking that, but we're actually looking to get some back and some swapping. It's complicated. It's actually nothing easy. It's very complicated. But we're gonna get some backed. We're gonna some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both."
But Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says the ceding of territory to Russia is a red line.
"The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this – and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier. Ukraine is ready for real decisions that can bring peace. Any decisions that are against us, any decisions that are without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not achieve anything. These are stillborn decisions. They are unworkable decisions."
President Zelenskyy has won diplomatic backing from Europe and the NATO alliance ahead of the Russia-U-S summit this week.
The Ukrainian leader says peace must come through applying more international pressure on Russia.
"Everyone sees that there has been no real step from Russia toward peace, no action on the ground nor in the air that could save lives. That is why sanctions are needed, pressure is needed, strength is needed. The strength, first and foremost, of the United States, the strength of Europe, the strength of all nations in the world that want peace and stability in international relations. If Russia does not want to stop the war, then its economy must be stopped."
Dr Gould-Davies says the location of the Trump-Putin talks itself could be symbolic of what's to come, given Alaska is a former Russian territory that was sold to the U-S in 1867.
"The symbology of it is clear and it's easy to imagine Putin making the point, the argument, the framing point to Trump that, look, we once had this territory, and we gave it to therefore Ukraine had this territory and now should give it to us. So, tactically, the location of the summit would seem to be something that naturally favours Russia, as well as the form, as well as being bilateral."
He says Russia has undeniably been put at an advantage in peace negotiations if the meeting goes ahead in a bilateral format with Ukraine absent.
"Putin has already achieved the major victory of securing a summit meeting with the United States on American soil. And that's something that he will be working very hard to make the maximum use of in the coming week. One further question is, where is Europe in all of this? Europe must be alarmed and, in fact, appalled by this latest turn of events."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tells German public broadcaster A-R-D that Germany cannot accept issues of territorial control could be discussed between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans.
"We are preparing intensively for this meeting at European level together with the American Government. And we hope and assume that the Government of Ukraine, that President Zelenskyy will be involved in this meeting. In any case, we cannot accept that territorial issues between Russia and America are discussed or even decided over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians. I assume that the American government sees it the same way. That is why there is this close coordination. That will continue in the coming days.”
European leaders fear that, if Russia's wish of territorial expansion into Ukraine is granted, this will be the beginning of yet more expansion throughout the region.
But Trump ally and South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham, tells N-B-C News the U-S plans to counteract these concerns by continuing their defensive support for Ukraine in the future.
"What will stop a third war is to do things differently than we did in 2022. It's to keep arming Ukraine so that Russia will be deterred by the most lethal army on the continent of Europe right now, which is Ukraine. Security guarantees that if you come into Ukraine again, you'll be fighting more than just Ukraine. Having some European forces on the ground as tripwires."
