Peace talks stall amid Russia’s unwillingness to negotiate — Zelenskyy
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in his evening address on March 24, 2026, that peace talks with Russia have yielded no real progress, blaming Moscow’s unwillingness to engage genuinely in diplomacy.
Lviv officials posted images of a residential building on fire next to the Bernardine monastery after attack of Russians on March 24, 2026“Today, our negotiating team, which has returned from the United States, delivered its report. Sadly, there has been no real progress so far – Russia does not want to move towards peace,” he said.
Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine, the U.S., Europe, and other global actors must do everything possible to ensure Russia becomes genuinely interested in diplomacy.
“Not just so they can earn more money from oil and gain more time for further attacks and aggression. Peace must be reliable – that is our goal, and it will be achieved. And we will respond to the attacks. Without fail.”
Zelenskyy directed the Ukrainian negotiating team to continue working closely with Kyiv’s partners to ensure diplomacy remains substantive and that humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges, are resolved. He also instructed the team to brief European and Canadian partners on the Florida meetings.
Meanwhile, Moscow has launched the largest aerial attack on Ukraine over a 24-hour period since the war began, hitting cities across the country with 948 drones. These strikes came hours after a heavy overnight attack left at least five people dead.
Yurii Ihnat, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, said on March 24 that a “large number of drones” had entered Ukrainian airspace from the north of the country, “effectively moving in columns”.
Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi and Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv Oblast Military Administration, reported that Russian drones struck Lviv Oblast on March 24, sparking fires at a UNESCO World Heritage site in the city of Lviv and a house in the village of Sernyky, injuring 32 people.
Kozytskyi reported that Russians damaged the Bernardine Monastery in Lviv, an architectural monument of national significance.
The head of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Svitlana Onyshchuk, reported that two people were killed. Four, including a six-year-old child, were injured. Various buildings in the city, including the maternity hospital, were damaged.
Russians killed a Ukrainian National Guard soldier and his 15-year-old daughter, Anelia. Onyshchuk later clarified that they had come to the maternity hospital to visit the man’s wife, who had given birth to a son just a few days prior.
At 10:25 p.m., the 50th Regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine, named after Colonel Semen Vysochan, identified the deceased as Volodymyr Shkrumelyak, a serviceman of their regiment.
Volodymyr Shkrumelyak“A barbaric attack by the Russian occupiers has claimed the lives of a National Guardsman and his daughter, Anelia, who had accompanied her father to the maternity hospital. Volodymyr had recently joined the ranks of the National Guard of Ukraine, choosing the path of a defender of the Motherland. He was a man of honor, responsibility, and profound fatherly love. His service had only just begun, yet he had already proven himself to be a reliable brother-in-arms,” the statement reads.
Martsinkiv said a 6-year-old boy injured in the strike is hospitalized in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. Other victims have received medical assistance and are in fair condition.
In Vinnytsia, one person died and 11 were injured on Tuesday afternoon.
Update: The Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics reported that a Russian attack on Vinnytsia claimed the life of Borys Avksentiuk, a Doctor of Technical Sciences and Professor.
Borys Avksentiuk“A Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, outstanding scientist, and a true intellectual has tragically perished… He was not only a highly qualified specialist but also a man of great culture, wisdom, and dignity,’ the official statement of the institute read.
From 2001 to 2022, Avksentiuk worked as a professor at the Department of Commodity Science, Expertise, and Trade Entrepreneurship, mentoring more than one generation of young students.
U.S. President Donald Trump took office pledging to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours — a promise that went unfulfilled. Since returning to the White House, his administration has eased sanctions on Russian oil and repeatedly sided with Moscow in war talks, prompting critics and some analysts to argue that U.S. policy has increasingly aligned with Russian interests.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate pointed out that the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or injured because of the war rose by 31% compared to the previous year. She asked why Trump’s year of negotiations was the deadliest for Ukraine’s civilian population since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“Why did Putin not allow himself such brutal strikes on civilian infrastructure under Biden, whom Trump calls ‘weak,’ but totally destroys peaceful cities and disregards the ‘strong Trump’?” she asked on her Facebook page.
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