UKRAINE’S foreign minister is set to visit China in late July, the Chinese announced today.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that Dmytro Kuleba has accepted an invitation from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to visit Beijing from July 23 to 26 for talks on how to bring the conflict with Russia to an end.

This followed remarks on Sunday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky where he indicated that he was ready for negotiations with Russia. This is the first time he has shown a willingness to hold negotiations with Russia since a potential peace deal was blocked after a visit to Kiev by the then British prime minister Boris Johnson in the early months of the invasion. 

Mr Zelensky has proposed that Moscow should send a delegation to a peace summit scheduled to be held in Switzerland in November.

The hopes for peace follow the latest exchange of drone and missile attacks between the Russians and Ukrainians on Sunday. 

At least two people were killed in Ukrainian strikes on the partly Russian-occupied Donetsk region, Russian state media said, while Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes wounded at least five people.

Along the front line in the east, Russia said it had taken control of two villages, one in the Kharkiv region and one in the Lugansk region.