Russian attacks kill at least 6 in Ukraine amid US push to end war
Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least six people in overnight strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure, while a Ukrainian attack in southern Russia killed three people and damaged homes, authorities said.
The large-scale attacks come during a renewed U.S. push to end the war that has raged for nearly four years and talks about a U.S.-brokered peace plan. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials for several hours in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press.
Driscoll, who became part of the U.S. negotiating team less than two weeks ago, is heading up the latest phase of talks involving the terms of a possible peace plan with Russia.
The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, would not offer details on how long the negotiations were expected to last or what topics were being discussed, but noted the Ukrainians were aware of the meeting and all sides have indicated they wanted to reach a deal to halt the fighting as quickly as possible.
Russia fired 22 missiles of various types and over 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, noting that four drones flew into Romania and Moldova.
"What's crucial now is for all partners to move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must inevitably work," Zelenskyy wrote.
Kyiv targeted in latest attack
The Russian strikes knocked out water, electricity and heat in parts of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Video footage posted to Telegram showed a large fire spreading in a nine-story residential building in Kyiv's eastern Dniprovskyi district.
Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said two people were killed and five injured in Dniprovskyi and another residential building in the central Pecherskyi district was badly damaged.
Liubov Petrivna, a 90-year-old resident of a damaged building in the Dniprovskyi district, told the AP "absolutely everything" in her apartment was shattered by the strike and "glass rained down" on her.
Petrivna said she didn't believe in the peace plan now under discussion: "No one will ever do anything about it. Putin won't stop until he finishes us off."
In a subsequent attack wave, four people were killed and three were injured in a strike on a nonresidential building in Kyiv's western Sviatoshynyi district, according to the head of Kyiv city administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
Strikes hit energy infrastructure
Ukraine's energy ministry also said energy infrastructure had been hit, without describing the extent of the damage. Ukraine's emergency services said six people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on energy and port infrastructure in Odesa region.
Three people were killed and eight more were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's southern Rostov region overnight. The casualties occurred in the city of Taganrog not far from the border in Ukraine, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said in an online statement Tuesday.
The attack damaged private houses and multistory residential blocks, unspecified social facilities, a warehouse and a paint shop, Slyusar said.
Russian air defenses destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones overnight above various Russian regions and the occupied Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday, noting that 116 of the drones were shot down over the Black Sea.
Peace efforts going in 'right direction'
The attacks followed talks between U.S. and Ukraine representatives in Geneva on Sunday about a U.S.-Russia brokered peace plan.
Oleksandr Bevz, a delegate from the Ukrainian side, told The Associated Press the talks had been "very constructive" and the two sides were able to discuss most points.
Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday morning that Moscow has not received the updated peace plan.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that a U.S.-brokered peace plan for Ukraine "goes in the right direction" but also cautioned it must not be "a capitulation" enabling Russia to later renew hostilities.
The French head of state said any peace deal with Moscow must include robust security guarantees for Ukraine and, more widely, for Europe and he insisted the size of Ukraine's armed forces shouldn't be restricted so it can defend the country in peacetime.
Macron was speaking to broadcaster RTL before a video conference meeting later Tuesday of countries, led by France and the UK, that could help police any ceasefire with Russia.
"We want peace but we don't want a peace is that is, in fact, a capitulation. That is to say it puts Ukraine in an impossible position, that in the end gives Russia the freedom to keep going, to go further," Macron said.
Peace proposals that Ukraine has been discussing with Trump administration envoys and European allies "goes in the right direction: peace" but parts of it need to be improved, he said.
"No one can replace the Ukrainians in saying which territorial concessions they are prepared to make," said the French leader, who sounded skeptical about the plan's chances of success. "There's only one person who doesn't want peace: it's Russia."
