The Kremlin assures Putin that it is aware of the Ukrainian president's letter seeking face-to-face talks
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Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed of an open letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, according to the country's TASS news agency.
Zelenskyy published a letter to Putin on Thursday. It suggests that the two leaders meet to agree on an end to the war, warning that Kyiv is ready to fight otherwise. He also said that the Russians were tired of him and the war.
Putin, who is due to speak later on Friday at his economic forum in St.
In Friday's clashes, a Russian jet attack on a dairy factory in the area around Kyiv left four people dead and seven wounded, Ukrainian officials said.
Peace efforts led by the White House have been strained as the sides have not made progress on a key rift and as the war in Iran has become a major concern of the Trump administration.
Zelenskyy's appeal to Putin came three days after he asked the US to provide anti-ballistic missiles to Ukraine, amid a wave of Russian attacks.
Putin had repeatedly told Zelenskyy that he needed to withdraw his troops from the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine if he wanted the war to end.
The two have not met in person since 2019, at a multilateral conference in Paris, along with the leaders of France and Germany.
US House passes Ukraine aid bill
Zelenskyy rejected that demand as tantamount to seizing Ukraine, and said handing over the territory would affect the fate of hundreds of thousands of people and leave the country vulnerable to attack by Russia.
In the first year of the war, Putin signed agreements that were met with international condemnation to absorb the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia.
At the forum of St. Petersburg on Thursday, Putin stuck to his tough stance on the war and said his troops were entering the battlefield every day. But he also said that US President Donald Trump's peace proposals could end the war if Kyiv is ready to back down.
Democrat lawmakers and some Republicans in the US are impatient with the Trump administration, asking why US $ 400 million was allocated to Ukraine in the past months under the regime. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 has not been dismantled.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers this week he expects “news on that very soon” as the interagency review continues. It's similar to what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in his testimony a few weeks ago.
The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Thursday to provide separate aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia.
The House voted 226-195 on the Support for Ukraine Act, which reached the floor after stalling for months. The action also includes measures to help Ukraine rebuild after the war, approves more than $1 billion in aid to Kyiv, and supports up to $8 billion in direct loans and imposes —and tougher sanctions and export controls on Russia.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's ambassador to the US, hailed the passage of X as “an important step.”
However, the future of the act is uncertain. To become law, it must be passed in the Senate, where Republican leaders have withheld votes on Russia sanctions legislation that has broad bipartisan support, saying they would wait for Trump's guidance.
If the measure passes the Senate, the bill is likely to be vetoed by Trump.
Putin promises to improve air defense
In St. Petersburg on Thursday, Putin said manpower, industrial resources and determination were on Russia's side in the fifth year of Europe's deadliest civil war since the 1940s.
His army “recently” pushed Ukrainian forces out of an area of nearly 2,500 kilometers, he said, although he acknowledged that Moscow had to and would improve its air defenses to deal with the growing threat from Ukrainian drones.
Some Western and Ukrainian military analysts say Russia's progress has slowed significantly, however, and say Russia is far from achieving its stated military goals.
Putin also said that Russia has not yet used its Oreshnik hypersonic missile against Ukraine in actual combat situations, but only tested it to observe the results in order to make decisions about its full use in the future, including urban targets.
The Oreshnik, which Russia launched against Ukraine in 2024, is a nuclear-powered missile with a range of more than 5,000 kilometers. Putin has previously said that deterrence is impossible, although Western experts have questioned that assertion.
Putin also downplayed concerns about the war's impact on the economy, though he called Russia's Central Bank setting the country's key interest rate at 14.5 percent a “difficult decision.”
