Biden ready to speak with Putin ‘if he wants to end Ukraine war’ – follow live | CPT PPP Coverage

Around 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in Russia’s war against the country, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on television network.

This comes as Ukraine’s armed forces reported heavy shelling of a number of eastern frontline villages near the city of Bakhmut.

Russian rockets pounded neighbourhoods in Kherson knocking out power in the city where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops left.

Residents in Kyiv have been asked to stock up on water, food and warm clothes in the anticipation of a total blackout caused by Russian strikes, mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.

Sergei Lavrov, the Kremlin’s foreign minister who has a reputation for wild statements, used a press conference on Thursday to condemn Washington and Nato, while defending Russia’s bombing of Ukraine’s civil infrastructure.

He said the Kremlin’s assault on the Ukrainian power grid was aimed at cutting off the country’s supply of western arms, countering the view held by Kyiv and allies that knocking out heat and electricity for ordinary citizens was an attempt to break the national spirit.

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Joe Biden said he would be willing to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin to learn whether he’s willing to end his nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, but not unilaterally and only after discussions with America’s Nato allies first.

The US president said he’d take a meeting with Mr Putin “if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do”, speaking at a news conference alongside French president Emmanuel Macron after a three-hour bilateral meeting between the two leaders and their respective advisers.

“But I’ll only do it in consultation with my Nato allies. I’m not going to do it on my own,” he added.

He also thanked his French counterpart for welcoming over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to his shores, adding that such actions were “a mark of who you are as a people”.

“Putin thinks that he can crush the will of all those who oppose his imperial ambitions by attacking civilian infrastructures in Ukraine, choking off energy to Europe as a driver of crisis, [and] exacerbating [a] food crisis that’s hurting very vulnerable people not just in Ukraine, but around the world. And he’s not going to succeed,” he said.

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