Russian drone strikes have killed a 12-year-old boy in central Ukraine, officials confirmed, while long-range Ukrainian attacks reportedly targeted a Russian port and oil refinery. These escalating hostilities coincide with discreet US peace efforts.
Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were scheduled to meet a Ukrainian delegation in Miami on Thursday; confirmation is pending. These talks follow earlier discussions between the US envoys and President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
The latest diplomatic push comes after nearly four years of unabated conflict, previous attempts to break the deadlock proving fruitless. Officials have largely kept details of the current talks under wraps, despite Mr. Trump’s initial 28-point plan being leaked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s delegation in Miami wanted to hear from the U.S. side about the talks at the Kremlin.
Zelenskyy, as well as European leaders backing him, have repeatedly accused Putin of stalling in peace talks while the Russian army tries to press forward with its invasion.
Zelenskyy said in a video address late Thursday that officials wanted to know “what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who accompanied Putin on a visit to India on Friday, repeated the Russian leaders’ recent criticism of Europe’s stance on the peace talks. Kyiv’s European allies are concerned about possible Russian aggression beyond Ukraine and want a prospective peace deal to include strong security guarantees.
Kyiv’s allies in Europe are “constantly putting forward demands that are unacceptable to Moscow,” Ushakov told Russia’s state-owned Zvezda TV. “Putting it mildly, the Europeans don’t help Washington and Moscow reach a settlement on the Ukrainian issues.”
In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian drone attack Thursday night destroyed a house where the boy was killed and two women were injured, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 137 drones of various types during the night.
Ukrainian drones attacked a port in Russia’s Krasnodar region on the border with Ukraine. The attack sparked a fire at the Temryuk sea port and damaged port infrastructure, officials said.
Ukrainian drones also aimed deeper inside Russia, attacking the city of Syzran on the Volga river, Mayor Sergei Volodchenkov said without providing more details.
Unconfirmed media reports said Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery in Syzran, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and the illegally annexed Crimea overnight.
