Ukrainian and Russian delegations at the Ciragan Palace, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2, 2025

Saturday’s Coverage: Russia’s “Massive Attack” on Odesa Kills 1+, Injures 3

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1111 GMT:

Seven civilians have been murdered and at least 28 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 18 of 57 drones, and seven were lost to electronic counter-warfare.

Three civilians were slain and six injured in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Two people were killed and five wounded by a Russian missile strike on the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

In the Sumy region in the northeast, a 78-year-old woman was killed.

One person was murdered and six injured, including a child, in attacks on 34 settlements in the Kherson region in the south.

Casualties were also reported in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine is proposing a third round of talks with Russia to end Moscow’s 41-month full-scale invasion.

In his nightly address to the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv has asked for the meeting this week, hoping to overcome Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire and ultimata for Ukraine’s surrender.

The President said, “The momentum of the negotiations must be stepped up.” He reiterated his readiness to sit down with Putin: “A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace – lasting peace.”

The only outcome from talks in Istanbul in mid-May and at the start of June were exchanges of thousands of prisoners, as well as civilian detainees held by the Russians and the bodies of slain troops.

At the table, Kremlin official Vladimir Medinsky not only insisted on Russia’s seizure of Crimea and four regions in the east and south — parts of which Moscow does not control — but also said that the Russians would demand two regions, Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast, if Kyiv did not capitulate.

The Kremlin is also demanding a weak, demilitarized, and “neutral” Ukraine with no security guarantees from the West. All sanctions would be lifted on Moscow, and there will be no responsibility for crimes during the invasion. Putin has also indicated that the Zelensky Government must step down before any agreement is signed.

Russian State media reported Zelensky’s statement but the Kremlin made no comment.