Kremlin official says Russian police and National Guard will stay in Ukraine’s Donbas even after peace

KYIV, Ukraine — A senior Kremlin official says the Russian police and National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas to oversee the prized industrial region, even if a peace settlement ends the nearly four-year war — a possibility that is likely to be rejected by Ukrainian officials as U.S.-led negotiations drag on.

Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from the front line, Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov said in comments published Friday in Russian business daily Kommersant.

Ushakov told Kommersant “it’s entirely possible that there won’t be any troops [in the Donbas], either Russian or Ukrainian” in a postwar scenario.

But he said that “there will be the National Guard, our police, everything necessary to maintain order and organize life.”

For months, American negotiators have tried to navigate the demands of each side as President Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into a major obstacle over who keeps Ukrainian territory that Russian forces have occupied so far.

Since Moscow’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and the seizure of territory in the east by Russia-backed separatists later that year, as well as land taken after the full-blown invasion was launched Feb. 24, 2022, Russia has captured about 20% of its neighbor.

Ukraine says its constitution doesn’t allow it to surrender land. Russia, which illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions illegally in 2022, says the same. Ushakov said that “no matter what the outcome [of peace talks], this territory [the Donbas] is Russian Federation territory.”

On Thursday, Trump compared the negotiations to a very complex real estate deal. He said he wants to see more progress in talks before sending envoys to possible meetings with European leaders over the weekend.

In October, Trump said the Donbas region will have to be “cut up” to end the war.

Ukrainian counterattacks

In recent months, Russia’s army has made a determined push to gain control of all parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up the valuable Donbas region.

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

Ukrainian forces said Friday that they had recaptured several settlements and neighborhoods near the city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, following a months-long operation aimed at reversing Russian advances.

Kupiansk has in recent months been one of the most closely contested sectors of the around 600-mile front line.

Ukrainian units gradually cut off Russian supply routes into Kupiansk starting Sept. 22 and regained control of the villages of Kindrashivka and Radkivka, as well as several northern districts of the city, according to a statement by the National Guard’s Khartia Corps posted on Facebook.

Fighting is ongoing in central Kupiansk now, where more than 200 Russian soldiers are encircled, the statement said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of himself standing on the road into Kupiansk on Friday. Explosions could be heard in the background as he spoke.

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

Russian officials made no immediate comment, and the Ukrainian’s statements couldn’t be independently verified.

At the end of October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian troops in Kupiansk were surrounded and offered to negotiate their surrender. He said a media visit to the area would prove it.

Ukraine also has developed its long-range strike capabilities using domestically produced weapons to disrupt Russia’s war machine.

Its Special Operations Forces, or SSO, said Friday that an operation in the Caspian Sea struck two Russian vessels carrying military equipment and arms.

The ships named Kompozitor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Saridzha are under U.S. sanctions for transporting arms between Russia and Iran, the SSO said in a statement on social media. It didn’t say what weapons it used in its attack.

Cross-border drone strikes

A Ukrainian drone attack wounded seven people, including a child, in the Russian city of Tver, acting Gov. Vitaly Korolev said Friday. Falling drone debris struck an apartment bulding in the city, which lies northwest of Moscow, Korolev said.

Russia’s air defenses destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

Russian drones struck a residential area of Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding four others, the head of the local military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, wrote on Telegram on Friday.

Ukraine’s southern Odesa region came under a large-scale drone attack overnight, according to regional chief Oleh Kiper. The attack damaged energy infrastructure, he said. More than 90,000 people were without electricity Friday morning, according to Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 80 drones across the country during the night.

Litvinova and Novikov write for the Associated Press. Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.