Russia invades Ukraine: live updates

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave more details on Friday about a proposal put forward earlier in the day to send representatives to the Belarusian capital of Minsk to speak with Kiev, claiming that the Ukrainian side responded with a proposal to meet in Warsaw and then cut off contact.

“Putin immediately called President (Alexander) Lukashenko and agreed that the Belarusian side and the President will do everything possible to best organize the arrival of delegations and ensure their safety – this element is also important now – and the conditions for conducting these negotiations directly,” Peskov said in a telephone interview with reporters.

“After a short pause, the Ukrainians said that the Ukrainians wanted to go to Warsaw. Then they stopped and left contact,” Peskov added.

Ahead of Peskov’s comments, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Aristovich told CNN on Friday that the Ukrainian government was “studying the proposal.”

The Kremlin spokesman claimed that the halt was accompanied by the deployment of multiple launch missile systems in residential areas, including in Kiev, by “nationalist elements”, which the Kremlin considered “extremely dangerous”.

More context: Peskov’s statement reiterated the claim made by the Russian military earlier in the day, which said that “without evidence – US military and intelligence advisors instructed Ukrainian military commanders to place rocket artillery systems in residential areas to provoke retaliatory fire on local residents.”

I noticed the United States No less than 200 total launches of missiles Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a senior US defense official told reporters on Friday, adding that “some of these missiles that we have evaluated have affected civilian residential areas.”