Shawdesh Desk:

Ukrainian and Russian delegations resume peace talks Monday, a day after Russia launched a lethal cruise missile attack on a western Ukraine military base just 25 kilometers from Poland, a NATO member. At least 35 people died and 134 were wounded in the attack on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday in his daily nighttime address that Sunday was a “black day” for the country because of the attack.

The president said he had given a “clear warning” to Western leaders about the likelihood of an attack at the base where NATO units train with Ukrainian troops.

“This does not come as a surprise to the American intelligence and national security community,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during a Sunday appearance on CNN. “What it shows is that Vladimir Putin is frustrated by the fact that his forces are not making the kind of progress that he thought that they would make.”

“If Russia attacks, fires upon, takes a shot at NATO territory, the NATO alliance would respond to that,” warned Sullivan in an interview on the CBS network’s “Face the Nation” program.

President Zelenskyy Sunday night said he has attempted to arrange a meeting with Putin, but has been unsuccessful even though Ukranian and Russian delegations talk every day to make arrangements for humanitarian corridors and ceasefire agreements.

Meanwhile, Sullivan and officials from the National Security Council and State Department are scheduled to meet Monday in Rome with Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Yang Jiechi.

The discussion will be “part of our ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” according to NSC spokesperson Emily Horne.

Media reports emerged Sunday that Moscow has requested military and economic assistance from China for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Earlier, the White House warned China of severe “consequences” if it helps Russia avoid sanctions.