Kazakhstan's president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev delivered a rare public rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, telling him directly that the war in Ukraine must stop. Speaking beside Putin at a bilateral Russia-Kazakhstan summit in the Siberian city of Omsk, Tokayev said: "It is a shame, young people are dying... All this has to be stopped." He called for the conflict to be "frozen" and urged a return to the Istanbul talks of 2022 as a stepping stone toward "a long-awaited peace." The exchange, broadcast live on Russian television, was notable for its candour — Putin is seldom confronted in public by allied leaders calling for an end to the fighting. Putin, visibly impassive, responded only that he would brief Tokayev on "the details" of the situation in Ukraine.
The Kazakh leader's remarks reflect a growing, if cautiously expressed, unease among Moscow's traditional partners. Kazakhstan, a large Central Asian nation that shares a long border with Russia and is bound to it by historical and economic ties, has walked a careful line since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — maintaining friendly relations with Moscow while never endorsing the offensive. Tokayev went further on Saturday, saying the war's origins were "not quite understandable for many, including for us." The Kremlin has repeatedly stated its intention to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force, and US-led ceasefire diplomacy remains stalled.
The summit took place against a backdrop of intense military activity on both sides. Ukraine launched more than 300 drones into Russian territory on Saturday, according to Moscow, with one striking an oil refinery in the Tyumen region of Siberia and setting it ablaze. An all-Russian athletics competition in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg was halted over drone threats, and staff at the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries — a repeated target — were evacuated from a local facility. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also claimed a second consecutive strike on a military factory in the Kirov region, where a previous attack killed five people. Kyiv has said its long-range campaign is designed to damage Russia's war capacity and press the Kremlin toward negotiations.
Casualties mounted on both sides of the front line. Russian-installed authorities in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region said a Ukrainian strike on Kyrylivka, a town on the Azov Sea, killed 12 people including four children at what they described as a tourist camp; eight more people were unaccounted for. Kyiv has not commented on that strike. Zelensky confirmed that a Russian attack on the north-eastern city of Sumy killed three people at a private courier depot, with two further deaths reported in southern and eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's transport ministry said a civilian cargo ship carrying nearly 2,800 tonnes of corn was struck twice as it left the port of Odesa, catching fire and leaving two crew members missing.
Why this matters: Tokayev's blunt words to Putin — delivered on camera, on Russian soil, at a formal diplomatic occasion — are a signal that even allies are growing weary of a war now entering its fifth year. The UN has warned that civilian deaths are rising, peace talks remain deadlocked, and Ukraine's deepening drone campaign is disrupting daily life across Russia on a scale not seen since the conflict began. Whether Tokayev's appeal shifts anything in Moscow remains doubtful, but the fact that it was broadcast on Russian state television gives the moment unusual resonance.