Key points
- Lavrov condemns Zelensky for demanding immediate meeting “at all costs”
- Trump has brought back threat of sanctions
- Ukrainian troops recaptured three villages in Donetsk region: Kyiv
ISLAMABAD: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Sunday that a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin remained “the most effective way forward” as the two sides exchange prisoners and the country celebrated Independence Day.
Kyiv’s general said that Ukrainian troops had recaptured three villages in its Donetsk region that had fallen under Russian control. And Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant.
After a push by US President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia summit, hopes for peace dimmed when Russia on Friday ruled out any immediate Putin-Zelensky meeting.
“Effective way forward”
But Zelensky said Sunday that the “format of talks between leaders is the most effective way forward”, renewing calls for a bilateral summit with Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier accused Western countries of seeking “a pretext to block negotiations” and condemned Zelensky for “demanding an immediate meeting at all costs”.
Zelensky, speaking at a ceremony attended by Western officials including US envoy Keith Kellogg — whom he awarded with the Ukrainian Order of Merit — vowed to “to push Russia to peace”.
Also Sunday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each sent back 146 prisoners of war and civilians in the latest of a series of swaps that remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the rivals.
Today, our people are coming home. Warriors of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and civilians. Most of them had been in captivity since 2022.
We are bringing home journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, who was abducted in the Kyiv region in March 2022.… pic.twitter.com/HMhmJwGMtR
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 24, 2025
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the release of two Ukrainian journalists, Dmytro Khyliuk and Mark Kaliush, denouncing “their abductions and the abuse they suffered in detention”.
According to Reuters, US President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia on Friday if there is no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said.
Villages recaptured
With the war having already claimed tens of thousands of lives, Russia has recently claimed new advances, including taking two villages in the eastern Donetsk region Saturday.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky, said Sunday that three other villages had been reclaimed in Donetsk, which has emerged as the focal point for peace talks.
Drone attacks
The drone attacks in Russia on Ukraine’s Independence Day included one shot down over the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in western Russia.
The plant said a fire sparked by the drone had been extinguished and there were no casualties or increased radiation levels.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly warned of the risks from fighting around nuclear plants following Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
Russian authorities said Ukrainian drones had also been shot down over areas far from the front, including Saint Petersburg in the northwest.
Ten drones were shot down over the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland, sparking a fire at a fuel terminal owned by Russian energy group Novatek, local authorities said.
Ukraine’s outgunned army has used drones to target Russia’s oil infrastructure, a key source of Moscow’s revenues to fund the war. Russia has seen soaring fuel prices since the attacks began.
