Trump announced meetings with Russia and Ukraine

The Kremlin considers the attack on the boarding school in Sudzha to be a "barbaric provocation by the Kiev regime," said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.

Peskov, without answering a journalist's clarifying question about the number of people killed in the strike, said that the Defense Ministry would provide all the information on this. "You have the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the statement of the Russian Defense Ministry. We have nothing to add to it," Peskov said.

On February 1, a rocket hit the building of a former boarding school in Sudzha, which has been occupied by Ukrainian troops since August last year. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that it was fired upon by Russian military personnel and that the Russian side was aware that "only civilians were present in the building." According to the Ukrainian armed forces, four people were killed.

A few hours after the attack, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the building had been attacked by Ukrainian forces - Russian military officials said that the air defense forces had shot down Ukrainian missiles fired from the Sumy region.

So far, neither side has provided objective evidence in support of their version.

Donald Trump announces meetings with Russia, Ukraine and "various parties"

US President Donald Trump has announced that his administration is already planning "meetings and negotiations" with both Moscow and Kiev aimed at ceasing hostilities and concluding a peace agreement.

"We are working with both Ukraine and Russia, and meetings and negotiations are planned with various parties, including Ukraine and Russia. I think the discussions are going well," Trump said.

The US president did not provide any details - he did not specify when or in what format these meetings are planned.

Trump's remarks came hours after his special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, reiterated the US position that both sides must make concessions if they want to end the fighting. Kellogg said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had "softened his position on the territories." "And Putin will have to soften his position," he said.

Kellogg said that "very likely, in the near future" US representatives would hold talks "with all of them."

Zelensky told the Associated Press on February 2 that Kellogg would be in Kiev "very soon," adding that no specific dates had been set for the visit. "It's very important for us that it happens in the coming weeks, in the near future. I think that's all that will happen," he said.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 3 that "nobody has discussed a possible combination of negotiating parties" with Moscow so far. He repeated Putin's words that Zelensky's decree banning negotiations with Russia in 2022 means that "the Ukrainian president does not have the right to hold such negotiations." Putin had previously said that Moscow believed that the decree could only be overturned by the Verkhovna Rada, because Zelensky was not a legitimate president. Zelensky himself has said that the existence of such a decree does not prevent him from holding negotiations as the country's president. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”