Ukraine's President Zelenskiy welcomes India's PM Modi in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said negotiations were ongoing with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Switzerland regarding the second summit on peace in a conversation with Indian journalists shared on his social media on Sunday.

Zelenskiy also said he had told India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would support India hosting the second summit on peace as Kyiv hopes to find a host among the countries in the Global South.

"But I want to be frank, and this applies not only to India, but to any state that would be positive about hosting a second summit. We will not be able to hold a peace summit in a country that has not yet joined the peace summit communique," Zelenskiy said.

The Ukrainian president added that he discussed all of the points from the communique and previous peace summit during the meeting with Modi on Friday.

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Putin Meets With Commanders as Zelenskiy Speaks of ‘Fair Peace’

Ukraine’s operation in Russia’s Kursk region is part of a broader military, political and diplomatic effort aimed at making Russia accept a “fair peace,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“Everything we do is for the purpose of forcing Russia be ready for fair peace,” Zelenskiy told Indian journalists in Kyiv on Sunday, according to his Telegram. Ukraine took under its control two more settlements in Kursk region, he said in a daily video statement.

Ukraine’s leader also discussed with the visiting media Ukraine’s planned second peace summit, his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, and Kyiv’s hoped-for integration into the European Union.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region this month. On Saturday, Zelenskiy said the move was done to protect the northeastern Sumy region and to capture Russian soldiers who could be used for prisoner-of-war swaps.

Putin on Saturday night received reports from at least five commanders involved in combat missions in Russian territories bordering Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Sunday.

Ukrainian forces claim to have control of more than 1,250 square kilometers (483 square miles) of territory in the first foreign military offensive inside Russia since World War II.

In an operational update, Russia’s defense ministry said its troops continue to repel Ukrainian efforts in several settlements in the Kursk region, from which thousands of residents have fled in recent weeks.

“Reconnaissance and search operations continue to identify and destroy enemy sabotage groups in forested areas that were attempting to penetrate deep into Russian territory,” the ministry said.

The Kremlin on Saturday released video of Putin meeting with Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff. It was unclear when the meeting took place.

Ukrainian intelligence also observed a significant concentration of Belarusian military personnel, artillery and air defense in its Gomel region near Ukraine’s northern border under the disguise of military drill, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in emailed statement.

Ukraine urged Belarus to avoid “tragic mistakes under Moscow’s pressure” and withdraw the forces to a distance unreachable for Belarusian systems.

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Ukraine says it used its new long-range 'Palianytsia' rocket drone for the first time as it targets air bases deep inside Russia

• Ukraine said it had used a new long-range rocket-drone hybrid for the first time.

• The "Palianytsia" is designed to target Russian aircraft stationed at air bases inside Russia.

• A video shared by Zelenskyy suggested it may be able to hit targets 400 miles inside Russia.

Ukraine says it has used a new long-range rocket-drone hybrid designed to hit targets deep inside Russia for the first time.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a video on X on Sunday from the government-backed United24 platform detailing the "Palianytsia" weapon, which he said made a "successful" combat debut on Saturday.

While many of the Palianytsia's specifications are classified, the video seems to suggest that it could be used to hit targets as far away as Russia's Savasleyka air base in the region of Nizhny Novgorod and Soltsy air base in the Novgorod region — both about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border.

The video says "two dozen" Russian military airfields are within the rocket drone's range. It adds that it uses a turbojet engine and is fired from a ground-launch platform.

"In the two and a half years of full-scale war, Russia has launched about 10,000 missiles of various types and more than 33,000 glide bombs at Ukraine," Zelenskyy wrote in his post on X. "Stopping attacks on our cities can be achieved by targeting the carriers of this weaponry — Russian aircraft stationed at military air bases."

The Palianytsia "was designed domestically to destroy the enemy's offensive potential," he said, adding: "The number of rocket drones production will grow just like our long-range strike drones production did, whose efficiency we see almost daily."

Should the Palianytsia's suggested range prove accurate, the system's arrival on the battlefield may be particularly timely for Ukraine's forces.

While Ukraine is not allowed to use Western-supplied weaponry to strike targets deep inside Russian territory, recent Russian moves could mean that such weapons would be rendered ineffective even if the West were to change policy.

One unnamed Biden administration official told Politico earlier this week that Russia had moved targets out of range of the missiles donated by the Western allies, like the Storm Shadow or Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).

An unnamed senior administration official added that "90% of the planes that launch glide bombs" from Russian airspace had already been relocated out of range of those missiles, Politico reported.

The ATACMS can reach 300km (186 miles), while the Storm Shadow missile can reach about 250km (155 miles).

The Institute for the Study of War said it had "observed confirmation of redeployments of Russian aircraft to airfields out of range of Western-provided long-range weapons."

While Western limits remain in force, Ukraine has resorted to using relatively cheap, domestically-produced drones to carry out long-range attacks on Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces have claimed some notable long-distance hits on Russian aircraft in recent months, including on a Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic bomber at Olenya airbase in Murmansk, 1,100 miles inside Russia.

As well as inflicting damage on Russia's offensive capabilities, Ukraine's long-range strikes are also likely designed to pressure Russian air defenses and spread fear among locals, experts previously told Business Insider.

The new rocket drone comes as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in Russia's Kursk territory.

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Zelenskiy touts new 'drone missile', calls Putin 'sick old man'

Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy touted a newly developed Ukrainian "drone missile" on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia's Vladimir Putin as a "sick old man from Red Square".

As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelenskiy said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields.

"Our enemy will ... know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged," he said.

Zelenskiy said the new class of Ukrainian weapon had been used for a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not say where.

He used derisive language to describe Russia's 71-year-old president and the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Moscow.

"A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us," he said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which has attacked Ukraine with many thousands of missiles and drones since it invaded in February 2022, has decried Ukraine's drone attacks as terrorism. Moscow's troops are advancing in Ukraine's east and occupy 18% of the country.

Zelenskiy has been pressing Kyiv's allies to allow him to use Western weapons deeper in Russian territory such as to strike airbases used by Russian warplanes that pound Ukraine with missiles and glide bombs.

"I want to stress once more that our new weapon decisions, including Palianytsia, is our realistic way to act while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying decisions," Zelenskiy told a news conference.

Ukrainians say the word "Palianytsia", a type of Ukrainian bread, is too difficult to pronounce for Russians and it has been used - sometimes humorously - during the war as a way to tell Ukrainians and Russians apart.

"It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult to even pronounce what exactly has hit it," Zelenskiy said of the drone missile.

TOP COMMANDER PROMOTED

In a decree, Zelenskiy promoted his top commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, to the rank of general, a tacit gesture of praise after Ukraine's lightning cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched on Aug. 6.

Slammed by Russia as an escalation and major provocation, Ukraine's incursion has captured more than 90 settlements in the Kursk region according to Kyiv, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Poland's and Lithuania's leaders, Zelenskiy told reporters the operation had in part been a preventive move to stop Russian plans to capture the northern city of Sumy.

Apart from capturing prisoners of war and creating a "buffer zone", Zelenskiy said the operation had other objectives that he could not disclose publicly.

Polish president Andrzej Duda confirmed that Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks given to Kyiv by Warsaw were taking part in the fighting in Kursk region.

"We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, given by Poland (to Ukraine) more than one year ago, are defending today Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region," he said.

Russia has strongly condemned the use of western weapons for the incursion, which Putin has said will receive a "worthy response".

Independence Day has surged in importance for Ukrainians during the invasion, which has spurred widespread patriotic sentiment.

This year the public holiday took place after the U.S. and German embassies issued warnings of a heightened risk of Russian missile and drone attacks across the country.

There had been no major strikes as of 2200 local time, but the air raid siren sounded at least twice in Kyiv over the afternoon and evening.

To mark the date, Zelenskiy ratified the Rome Statute, paving the way for Ukraine to join the International Criminal Court, one of many steps needed to join the European Union, accession to which Kyiv sees as a priority.

He also signed legislation banning the activities of religious groups linked to Russia, creating a legal instrument for the government to ban a branch of the Orthodox Church seen as linked to Russia.

Ukraine and Russia also said they had each secured the release of 115 prisoners of war in an exchange. The Russian Defence Ministry said its freed servicemen had been captured during Ukraine's attack in the Kursk region.

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