Zelenskiy Tells Putin: Let's Talk Now Or Russia Will Suffer More

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine, saying it would otherwise take Russia "several generations" to recover from its losses in the war, Natalia Zinets and Natalie Thomas reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy said without peace talks, it would take Russia "several generations" to recover from its losses in the war.

Russian forces have taken heavy losses, with both the US and UK saying 7,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since Feb. 24, with four major generals among the dead.

Their advance has largely stalled since President Vladimir Putin launched the assault, with long columns of troops that bore down on Kyiv halted in its suburbs and hundreds of Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers, fighting vehicles, missile batteries, helicopters, and warplanes destroyed by Ukrainian soldiers and volunteers.

To reduce battle losses, Russia has intensified its bombardment of cities and footage showed a Russian tank firing an artillery round to kill an elderly Ukrainian, and soldiers firing at civilians blocking the advance of tanks and fighting vehicles.

On Saturday, Russia said its hypersonic missiles had destroyed a large underground depot for missiles and aircraft ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region but footage carried by UK’s Mail Online showed a missile hitting a building in a military base.

Hypersonic weapons can travel faster than five times the speed of sound and the Interfax agency said it was the first time Russia had used them in Ukraine. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed the attack but said the Ukrainian side had no information on the type of missiles used.

Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday they have not seen any significant shifts over the past 24 hours in front line areas, noting the cities of Mariupol, Mykolaiv, and Kherson in the south and Izyum in the east continued to see the heaviest fighting.

More than 3.3 million refugees have already fled Ukraine through its western border, with around 2 more million displaced inside the country. Efforts to evacuate civilians from cities under siege through "humanitarian corridors" continued. Ukrainian authorities said they hoped to open 10 such evacuation routes on Saturday.

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