Ukraine war: Putin says Russia does not reject peace talks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine, reports BBC. 

Speaking after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg, he said an African peace initiative as well as a Chinese one could serve as a basis for this.

President Putin also said it was hard to implement a ceasefire when the Ukrainian army was on the offensive.

Ukraine and Russia have previously said they will not come to the negotiating table without certain preconditions.

Ukraine wants its borders as they were in 1991 to be reinstated, something the Kremlin is deeply opposed to.

Moscow argues instead that for negotiations to take place, Kyiv would have to accept its country's "new territorial reality".

Mr Putin told the late-night press conference on Saturday that there were no plans intensify actions on the Ukrainian front for now.

He also defended the Kremlin's arrest of critical voices, claiming some people were harming Russia from inside.

In the wide-ranging briefing, the Russian president told reporters that Moscow carried out some "preventive strikes" after an explosion on a Crimean bridge earlier this month.

Following the bridge incident - which left two people dead - Mr Putin vowed to respond to what he claimed was a "terrorist" act by Ukraine. Kyiv did not officially say it was responsible for the blast on the bridge, which links the occupied peninsula to Russia.

The Russia-Africa summit comes after an African contingent including leaders and representatives from seven countries met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Putin last month.

On the ground, one person was been killed and five others injured after a rocket attack in the north-eastern city of Sumy, Ukraine's interior ministry said.

The ministry said on Telegram that a Russian missile hit an educational institution on Saturday evening. The BBC has not verified this information.

Elsewhere, two people were killed and another was injured after a missile hit "an open area" in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, an official said.

Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the city council, said the blast wave caused by the "enemy missile" blew out apartment windows and damaged an educational institution and supermarket.

President Zelensky has been visiting Ukrainian special forces near Bakhmut, the city where some of the fiercest fighting of the war has been taking place.

Ukrainian authorities have said Kyiv's troops are gradually moving forward near the eastern city, which Russian forces seized in May.