Russia-Ukraine war news: Ukraine calls Saudi Arabia peace talks ‘productive’

Russia was not invited to the meeting, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called it part of the West’s “futile, doomed efforts” to swing the Global South to Ukraine’s side, according to state media. Ryabkov said Russia plans to discuss the results of the Jeddah consultations with economic partners who attended the meeting.

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

In Jeddah, Yermak and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed Ukraine’s defense needs, especially air defense to protect the port infrastructure of southern Ukraine, Yermak said on Telegram. Sullivan “positively assessed” the start of negotiations on a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine, according to Yermak.

Ukraine’s discussion with European countries focused on economic and security support, Yermak said, particularly on finding ways to continue the export of Ukrainian grain after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal.

A drone was downed over Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Monday. “Our air defense system was activated in Belgorod to down a plane-type UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] approaching the city,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that emergency services rushed to the scene. The incident came after Russian air defenses claimed they shot down a “hostile drone” that was heading toward Moscow on Sunday.

China sent a peace envoy to the Jeddah talks after not attending an initial gathering in Copenhagen in late June. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba hailed Beijing’s participation as a “breakthrough,” according to Interfax-Ukraine. The summit was seen as a diplomatic push by Kyiv to grow partnerships beyond its established circle of Western supporters.

Russian shelling overnight in Kherson targeted a residential building, killing one person and injuring several others, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said Monday on Telegram. The attack came after at least six people were killed over the weekend in strikes across Ukraine, including one that hit a blood transfusion center. Moscow had earlier promised retaliation for Ukrainian strikes against a Russian oil tanker. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Russia’s airstrike on the medical facility as a war crime.

Russia’s air force appears to be losing its ability to generate effective tactical air power in the south, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday. In recent weeks, Moscow has consistently deployed “considerable resources in support of land operations in Ukraine, but without decisive operational effect,” it added.

Zelensky applauded “significant results” from U.S. and German air defense systems in his evening address, as Ukraine faces waves of Russian airstrikes that Kyiv says target civilians and residential buildings.

Ukraine confirmed that its missiles hit two bridges in the Kherson region that connect to Crimea. Ukraine’s attacks on the strategically important Chonhar and Henichesk bridges will “pose significant disruptions to logistics,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank said in an analysis.

In war against its Soviet past, Ukraine remodels towering Kyiv monument: The Motherland Monument, a 335-foot statue of a woman holding a sword and shield, is a symbol in Kyiv of the Soviet Union’s triumphs during World War II. Workers dismantled the part of the shield featuring the Soviet hammer and sickle and wheat beginning in late July. On Sunday, they replaced it with the Ukrainian emblem, Shera Avi-Yonah reports.

The statue’s new shield is yet another sign of Ukrainians’ “de-Russification” efforts since the invasion. The trident is featured on Ukraine’s coat of arms, a symbol it says dates to the 10th century, when it was associated with Volodymyr the Great, the grand prince of Kyiv.