Russia says all Ukrainian troops have left the Kursk region as Zelenskyy meets Trump at Vatican
KYIV Ukraine AP All Ukrainian troops have been forced from Russia s Kursk region Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted Valery Gerasimov Chief of the General Staff for Russia s Armed Forces gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the news in a meeting Saturday Peskov notified Russian state news outlet Interfax Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the claim In a comment Putin congratulated the Russian soldiers and commanders and announced that Kyiv s incursion had comprehensively failed The complete defeat of our enemy along Kursk s demarcation region creates the right conditions for further successes for our troops and in other key areas of the front he revealed Meanwhile U S President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Vatican City on the sidelines of the pope s funeral The presidents met at St Peter s Basilica for about minutes and agreed to continue negotiations later on Saturday Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov noted White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also substantiated the meeting and stated they met privately nowadays and had a very productive discussion Shortly after arriving in Rome last Friday Trump announced on social media that Ukraine and Russia should meet for very high-level talks on ending the three-year war sparked by Russia s invasion His envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Friday and Trump disclosed both sides were very close to a deal Meanwhile in a report Friday night Zelenskyy explained that very important meetings may take place in coming days and that an unconditional ceasefire was needed Real pressure on Russia is needed so that they accept either the American proposal to cease fire and move towards peace or our proposal whichever one can truly work and ensure a reliable immediate and unconditional ceasefire and then a dignified peace and defense guarantees he declared Diplomacy must succeed And we are doing everything to make diplomacy truly meaningful and completely effective Three people were killed overnight by Russian attacks across Ukraine local executives also explained Two people died in a strike on the town of Yarova in Ukraine s eastern Donetsk region local Gov Vadym Filashkin commented in a post on social media Another person died in the Dnipropetrovsk region stated Gov Serhiy Lysak Six people were injured including an -year-old woman and an -year-old girl he commented Russia launched three missiles and drones over Ukraine overnight Ukraine s air force wrote in a report Saturday Sixty-six drones were destroyed and a further decoy drones failed to reach their destination Meanwhile Russian air defenses shot down Ukrainian drones overnight the country s defense ministry stated Source
