Zelensky Says Russia Wants to Divide Ukraine Along Dnipro

PARIS, November 10 ------ Russia is using its strikes on Ukraine’s bridges and energy infrastructure to divide the country along the Dnipro River, President Volodymyr Zelensky said pledging state support to the frontline regions that have suffered most.

Zelensky made the remarks after a meeting with regional authorities from five frontline regions – Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Donetsk – along with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, with whom he publicly clashed over the capital’s unpreparedness just days earlier. “We discussed in detail the challenges posed by Russia’s operation,” Zelensky said, noting that the Cabinet of Ministers is ready to provide additional state resources wherever they are needed. “This is how we have made it through all the years of this war – filling gaps, finding and supplying what is needed,” he added.

Only several days prior, Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing new strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure, including bridges across the Dnipro. Since early October, Russian drones and missiles have repeatedly hit Kyiv’s bridges, forcing several of them to close fully or partially.

Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Nov. 4 that Russia was launching 300 to 400 drones a day at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, with more than 2,000 strikes recorded since August.

Ukrainian delegation arrives in UAE

Ukraine’s negotiating team has already arrived in the United Arab Emirates, with the first trilateral meeting between Russia and the US scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10.

According to Zelensky, European partners will also be in Abu Dhabi, holding separate meetings with the Ukrainian delegation. Kyiv’s team, Zelensky said, will propose de-escalation steps and seek an understanding of how a summit of leaders could be arranged. “Peace is needed. Security guarantees are needed. Real resources for Ukraine’s postwar recovery are needed,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) said that representatives of the so-called E4 group – comprising the UK, France, Germany, and Italy – would be present. Delegates from NATO and the European Commission are expected as well. “As directed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, we are doing everything to ensure that Europe remains a participant in the diplomatic process,” Umerov wrote.

Senior US envoy Steve Witkoff initially announced the talks on Nov. 2, saying the agenda would cover postwar security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian measures and ending the war. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, are expected to lead the US delegation.

The meeting will mark the first in-person trilateral round since February, when two meetings were held in Abu Dhabi and a third in Geneva before the process stalled. Speaking in Warsaw on Nov. 6, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine’s priorities for the talks remain security guarantees, an energy truce, de-escalation in the Black Sea and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia. “Russia can do this – end its war. It is important that America convince Russia of precisely that,” Zelensky said.

Source: kyivpost.com