San Francisco Frontiers - Moscow not expecting 'breakthroughs' from Ukraine talks

That came after the Kremlin on Monday said that the two sides were far apart in their visions on how to end the more than three-year-old conflict, and as they continued to pummel each other with drones and missiles.

"We don't have any reason to hope for some miraculous breakthroughs," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a regular briefing in answer to AFP's question about the Kremlin's expectations from the talks.

Outlining potential topics for discussion, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv was ready to "secure the release of our people from captivity and return abducted children, to stop the killings, and to prepare a leaders' meeting."

Moscow said that "a lot of work lies ahead" before even discussions could take place about possible talks between Putin and Zelensky, who last met in 2019.

Ukraine said its ex-defence minister and current secretary of the security council, Rustem Umerov, will head Kyiv's delegation on the talks on Wednesday.

But the Kremlin said only that it hoped talks could be held "this week".

"As soon as we are ready, we will make an announcement regarding the dates," Peskov said.

Moscow's delegation at the last round of talks with Ukraine was led by a hawkish historian and the current head of the Russian Union of Writers, Vladimir Medinsky, whom Ukraine described as a puppet with no authority.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on May 16 and on June 2 as Washington stepped up pressure for a deal, but no breakthroughs were made and the talks only yielded agreements to exchange prisoners and soldiers' bodies.

- Five killed in strikes -

At the frontline, far from the diplomatic deliberations, the brutal conflict raged on, with Moscow and Kyiv saying that they had intercepted dozens of drones launched at each other.

The Russian army also said that it had captured the village of Novotoretskoye in the Donetsk region -- the latest advance as Moscow intensifies its ground offensive.

A Ukrainian drone strike on a private bus in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region killed three people and wounded another three, a Moscow-installed official said.

Another man died in Russia's western border Belgorod region after a Ukrainian attack, according to the local governor.

At the same time, a Russian drone and missile salvo on Ukraine killed a 10-year-old boy in the eastern frontline city of Kramatorsk, and wounded more than a dozen people across the country, Kyiv's authorities said.

In recent weeks, Russia has fired a record number of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities, and seized more frontline territory, which Kyiv says is evidence that Moscow is not serious about halting the all-out offensive it launched in February 2022.

P.Thomas--SFF