Moscow holds off on response to ceasefire plan as US resumes Kiev aid
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it will not comment on the temporary ceasefire proposed by the United States for the war in Ukraine until it knows all the details.
"First, we need to receive this information," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz have promised to provide Moscow with all the information about the negotiations between the US and Ukraine in the Saudi port city of Jeddah.
The Ukrainian delegation expressed its readiness at the talks in Jeddah on Tuesday to agree to an immediate 30-day comprehensive ceasefire. As a gesture of goodwill, the US administration responded by lifting the temporary halt on arms deliveries to Kiev.
Contacts between Moscow and Washington are planned for the coming days, and US President Donald Trump declared that he also wants to have a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly, perhaps even this week.
Peskov said such a conversation is not out of the question and could be organized at short notice. However, there is still no clarity on the location and time for a planned personal meeting between the two heads of state.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski confirmed on Wednesday that US aid deliveries to Ukraine via his country have already resumed.
"I confirm that arms deliveries via Jasionka have returned to their previous level," Sikorski told journalists in Warsaw, standing next to his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, who had travelled to Poland directly from Jeddah.
Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport in south-eastern Poland and the railway line leading from there to nearby Ukraine are regarded as a key transport route for European and US military goods for Ukraine.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for more than three years with Western help.
Reports: Russian troops in centre of Ukrainian-occupied Kursk town
Russian troops meanwhile continued to advance, with state media and war bloggers saying on Wednesday that they had made their way to the centre of the small Ukrainian-occupied town of Sudzha in the Kursk region of western Russia.
Forces raised the Russian flag over the city hall building, the news agency Ria Novosti reported, citing a commander.
Sudzha was the most significant population centre in the Kursk region to come under the control of Ukrainian forces during their surprise advance into Russian territory last August.
Ukraine was able to capture more than 1,000 square kilometres in the border region. For months, Russia has been waging fierce battles – including with the support of North Korean soldiers – to reclaim the territory. Ukraine recently withdrew from several villages.
There has been no comment from the Ukrainian side so far on the status of Russian troops in Sudzha.
Syrians killed in Russian strike on Odessa port
Five people were killed in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Odessa and Kryvyi Rih, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Four Syrians were killed when the ship they were on was attacked in the port of Odessa, Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram. Two other people were injured.
The ship that was struck was a civilian vessel that had just been loaded with wheat for export to Algeria, he said.
In the south-eastern city of Kryvyi Rih, a woman was killed in a rocket attack, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram. Nine people were injured in the attack and damage was inflicted to the city's infrastructure, he said.
Ukrainian authorities said another man was injured in the eastern city of Dnipro and there was damage in the Kiev region as a result of drone attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia attacked the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Odessa with three Iskander-M missiles and launched 133 drones at the country.
In terms of the drones, 98 were shot down, it said, while the location of 20 others was lost, a common indication of electronic countermeasures.
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