British foreign minister “very skeptical” about Russia’s intentions for peace talks

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said on Saturday she feared peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were just a “smokescreen” used by the Kremlin ahead of a new offensive.

In an interview with The Times newspaper, Truss said she was “very skeptical” about the talks, saying Russia was using them as a diversion to “regroup” its forces.

“Their invasion is not going as planned. We don’t see any serious Russian troop withdrawals or any serious proposals on the table” she said.

“The Russians have lied and lied again. I fear that the negotiation is another attempt to create a diversion and a smokescreen against the appalling (atrocities)”, she added, stressing that “if a country is serious about negotiations, it is not indiscriminately bombing civilians that day.”

Several rounds of negotiations between Kiev and Moscow have taken place in person and by videoconference since the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24. The fourth opened on Monday at the level of delegations negotiating remotely.

New humanitarian exit routes agreed

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced Saturday that 10 humanitarian corridors have been agreed with the Russians.

They include a corridor from the besieged port city of Mariupol on the Black Sea coast, several in the Kyiv region and several more in the Luhansk region.

She also announced plans to deliver humanitarian aid to the city of Kherson, which is currently under control of the Russian forces.

President Zelenskyy said overnight that Russian forces are blockading the largest cities with the goal of creating such miserable conditions that Ukrainians will cooperate. He said the Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in central and southeastern Ukraine.

Satellite images on Friday from Maxar Technologies showed a long line of cars leaving Mariupol as people tried to evacuate. Zelenskyy said more than 9,000 people were able to leave the city in the past day.

Russian military says it used hypersonic weapons in Ukraine

The Russian military reported Saturday that it has used its latest hypersonic missile for the first time in combat.

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said Kinzhal missiles destroyed an underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and aviation ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine.

Russia had never previously reported the use of this ballistic missile in the two conflicts where it is belligerent, Ukraine and Syria, although it has been deployed many times in exercises since the first successful test in 2018.

Konashenkov said Russian forces also used the anti-ship Bastion missile system to strike Ukrainian military facilities near the Black Sea port of Odesa.

UK military: Kremlin ‘failing’ its objectives

In its latest military intelligence update on Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence says the Kremlin has so far failed to achieve any of its objectives from the invasion.

Posting online early Saturday morning, the MoD said Russia has been “surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance”.

The ministry says Russian forces are now “pursuing a strategy of attrition” which is “likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower” against civilian casualties and destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure.

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Zelenskyy calls for peace talks and demands “territorial integrity” is restored.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of his homeland, without delay. In a late night video message, he said if the war continued, Russia would take generations to recover from its losses.

“I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk,” he said early on Saturday. “The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover.”

Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of blockading Ukraine’s largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them. He said Russians were preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in the centre and southeast of the country.

“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, filmed outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office in the lamplight behind him.

Zelenskyy also said more than 130 survivors have been rescued from the rubble of a theatre in Mariupol, which Ukrainian authorities have accused Moscow of “knowingly” bombing on Wednesday. The president said more than 1,000 people had taken shelter there. There was no confirmation of the number of possible deaths, and rescue efforts were continuing.