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In a recent development, Russia expressed approval of the Trump administration’s latest national security strategy, according to statements from the Kremlin spokesperson, as reported by Russia’s Tass news agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked that the revised strategic document aligns closely with Russia’s perspective.
“The document includes remarks favoring dialogue over confrontation and the fostering of positive relations,” Peskov noted, expressing hope that this approach would pave the way for “further constructive cooperation with Washington regarding the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.”
The strategy, unveiled by the White House last Friday, emphasizes the United States’ desire to improve its relationship with Russia, following years of strained ties. It highlights the importance of ending the war as a key US interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”
Peskov’s remarks coincided with a series of Russian missile, drone, and artillery attacks that resulted in at least four fatalities in Ukraine over the weekend. These incidents occurred as US and Ukrainian officials concluded a third day of negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the ongoing war.
A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region on Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponising” the cold.
Three people were killed and 10 others wounded on Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
The latest round of attacks came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by US and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Speaking on Saturday at the Reagan National Defence Forum, US President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said efforts to end the war were in “the last 10 metres.”
He said a deal depended on the two outstanding issues of “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia controls most of Donbas, its name for Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk, which, along with two southern regions, it illegally annexed three years ago.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service.
It needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Kellogg, who is due to leave his post in January, was not present at the talks in Florida.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the UK, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.