Russian police and the National Guard will remain in Ukraine’s post-war Donbass, a Kremlin official said

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official said Friday that Russian police and the National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas and monitor the industry-rich region, even as a peace deal ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov’s comments underscore Moscow’s ambition to maintain its presence in the Donbass after the war. Ukraine is likely to reject such a stance if the US-led talks drag on.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian units had recaptured several settlements and neighborhoods near the city of Kupyansk in northeastern Kharkiv region, after a month-long operation aimed at reversing Russian advances there.

Kupyansk has been one of the most closely contested areas of the nearly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line in recent months, and claims Ukrainian advances of about 40 square kilometers. (15 square miles) would be a setback for Russia.

Less than two months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin surrounded Ukrainian forces in Kupyansk and offered to negotiate a surrender. He said that the media visit to the area will prove it. Putin has sought to portray Russia as negotiating from a position of strength in the war.

Obstacles to pushing for peace

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s office said he would host Zelensky for talks on Monday as peace efforts gained momentum and European leaders sought to advance talks. Afterwards, several European heads of state and government as well as the leaders of the European Union and NATO will join the meeting, a statement said.

Moscow will bless the ceasefire only after Ukraine’s troops withdraw from the front line, Ushakov also said in comments published Friday in the Russian business daily Kommersant.

He told Kommersant “it is entirely possible that there will be no army (in Donbass), either Russian or Ukrainian” in the post-war scenario. But he said that “there will be the National Guard, our police, everything necessary to maintain order and organize life.”

For months, U.S. negotiators have tried to navigate each side’s demands as U.S. President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. A major stumbling block in the search for a possible deal is who will keep Ukrainian territory so far occupied by Russian forces.

After Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and Russian-backed separatists seized territory in the east later that year, as well as a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia occupies 20% of its neighbor’s territory.

Ukraine has said that its constitution does not allow land transfers. Russia, which illegally seized Donetsk and three other regions in 2022, says the same. Ushakov said that “(regardless of the outcome of the peace talks, this region (Donbas) is the territory of the Russian Federation.”

On Thursday, Trump compared the negotiations to a very complicated real estate deal. He said he wanted to see more progress in the talks before sending an ambassador to a possible meeting with European leaders at the weekend.

In October, Trump said the Donbass region must be “cut-up” to end the war.

Ukrainian counterattacks

In recent months, the Russian military has made a determined effort to control all parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up the prized Donbas region.

Its slow slog through the Ukrainian countryside, using its significant advantage in troop numbers, has been costly in terms of casualties and weapon losses, in a war of corrosiveness. Although outnumbered, the Ukrainian defenders held firm in many areas and counterattacked in others.

The Ukrainian army said on Friday that it had advanced around Kupyansk. They gradually cut off Russian supply routes into the city from September 22 and regained control of the villages of Kindrashivka and Radkiv, as well as several northern districts of the city, according to a statement posted on Facebook by the Khartiya Corps of the Ukrainian National Guard.

Clashes continue in central Kupyansk, where more than 200 Russian soldiers are surrounded, the statement said.

Zelensky posted a video of himself standing on the street in Kupyansk on Friday. As he spoke, explosions could be heard in the background.

“Today, it is extremely important to achieve results on the battlefield so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in a video praising his troops on Ukraine’s Ground Forces Day.

Russian officials had no immediate comment, and the Ukrainians’ statements could not be independently verified.

Ukraine has also developed long-range strike capabilities using home-grown weapons to disrupt Russia’s war machine.

Its Special Operations Forces, or SSO, said Friday that operations in the Caspian Sea had led to attacks on two Russian ships carrying military equipment and weapons.

The ships Kompositor Rakhmaninov and Oskar-Saridzha are under US sanctions for transporting weapons between Russia and Iran, the SSO said in a statement on social media. He did not say what weapon he used in the attack.

Cross-border drone strikes

Acting Governor Vitaly Korolev said on Friday that seven people, including a child, were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the city of Tvar, Russia. Debris from the drone hit an apartment building in a city northwest of Moscow, Korolev said.

Russia’s air defense has destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

A Russian drone attacked a residential area of ​​Pavlohrad in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and injuring four others, Vladislav Hyvanenko, head of the local military administration, wrote on the Telegram message channel on Friday.

According to regional chief Oleh Kiper, a large-scale drone attack took place overnight in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region. He said that the energy infrastructure was damaged by the attack. On Friday morning, more than 90,000 people were without electricity, said Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 80 drones over the country overnight.

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Litvinova reports from Tallinn, Estonia. Associated Press writer Stephanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.