Russia attacks Ukraine amid talks on U.S. peace plan : NPR

Kiev, Ukraine – Russia launched a wave of attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev overnight, killing at least seven people in attacks on city buildings and energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s attack on southern Russia has killed three people and damaged homes, officials said.

The attacks came amid renewed US efforts to end the nearly four-year-old war and talks about a US peace plan. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials for several hours in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, a US official told The Associated Press.

Driscoll, who became part of the US negotiating team less than two weeks ago, is leading the latest phase of talks over the terms of a potential peace deal with Russia.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks, declined to provide details on how long the talks would last or what topics were being discussed, but said the Ukrainians were aware of the meeting and all sides indicated they wanted to reach an agreement to stop the fighting as quickly as possible.

Oleksandr Bevs, one of the Ukrainian representatives at Sunday’s talks between the US and Ukraine in Geneva, said the number of points in the proposed agreement had been reduced, but he denied reports that the 28-point US peace plan now includes 19 points.

“Changes to (the document) will continue. We can confirm that it was edited to remove points not related to Ukraine, exclude duplicates, and for editing purposes,” Bevez told The Associated Press. He said only a few points related to relations between Russia and the US were excluded.

long road to peace

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday that “a list of necessary steps to end the war may be practical” after progress was made in Sunday’s talks. He said he planned to discuss “sensitive” outstanding issues with US President Donald Trump.

Zelensky’s senior adviser, Rustam Umerov, posted on Twitter on Tuesday that Zelensky hoped to finalize a deal with Trump “at the earliest appropriate date in November.”

Russian officials have reserved their comments on the peace plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is in contact with US officials regarding peace efforts.

“We hope that they will provide us with an interim version in the context of completing the phase of coordination of this text with the Europeans and Ukrainians,” Lavrov said.

European leaders have warned that the road to peace will be long.

“It rained glass”

Russia fired 22 missiles of various types and more than 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, Zelensky wrote on Telegram. The strikes cut off water, electricity and heat in parts of Kyiv. Pictures show a massive fire spreading through a nine-story residential building in Kiev’s Eastern Dniprovsky district.

Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said 20 people were injured in Kiev. The Russian Defense Ministry said it targeted military-industrial facilities and energy assets. The ministry said the attacks were a response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian objects in Russia.

Liubov Petrovna, 90, who lives in a damaged building in the Dniprovsky district, told the AP that the attack shattered “absolutely everything” in her apartment and that “glass rained down” on her.

Petryevna said she no longer had confidence in the peace plan under discussion.

“Nobody will ever do anything about it,” she said. Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not stop until we are finished.”

In a subsequent wave of attacks, four people were killed and three wounded in an attack on a non-residential building in the western Svyatoshiny district of Kyiv, according to the head of the Kyiv city administration, Timur Tkachenko.

Neighboring countries Romania and Moldova reported that a handful of drones violated their airspace, with each landing on their territory.

Energy sites affected

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said energy infrastructure had been damaged, without giving details. Ukraine’s emergency services said six people, including two children, were injured in a Russian attack on energy and port infrastructure in the Odessa region.

An overnight Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s southern Rostov region killed three people and wounded eight in the city of Taganrog, just over the border in Ukraine, Governor Yuri Slyusar said in an online statement.

The overnight Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar was “one of the longest and largest attacks” and Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said six people were injured.

Russian air defenses destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones overnight over various Russian regions and the occupied Crimea peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

Ukraine said its drones and missiles struck an aviation repair plant and a drone production facility, as well as an oil refinery and an oil terminal.

It was the fourth-largest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia since the beginning of the war on February 24, 2022, according to an AP tally.

Planning should not be “surrendered”

Oleksandr Bevz, a representative of the Ukrainian side, told the AP that the Geneva talks had been “very constructive.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow had not received the updated US peace plan that emerged from that meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the US plan for Ukraine is “going in the right direction”, but also warned that it should not lead to a “surrender” that enables Russia to resume hostilities later.

Any peace deal must include strong security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe more broadly, Macron said in an interview with broadcaster RTL.

Macron was speaking on Tuesday ahead of a video conference meeting of countries led by France and Britain that could help police any ceasefire with Russia.