Russian drone and missile attacks on the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine killed a pregnant woman and two other people, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday, while Russian-annexed Crimea said it was repelling the drone attacks.
The attacks follow a series of attacks in recent weeks as Kiev has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russian oil installations, causing fuel shortages in Crimea and other regions.
Late on Monday (8), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had had a “positive” telephone conversation with American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. He commended their willingness to actively work towards a solution to the conflict in the coming weeks.
Last week, Zelensky published an open letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, proposing face-to-face negotiations to end the war, which has lasted five years. The Ukrainian’s proposal was.
“There are different opinions around Putin. Half of them want this war to continue and the other half want it to end,” Zelensky said in an interview with The Guardian, which he published on the social network X. “Businesspeople understand that the Russian economy is in a terrible situation.”
Putin said last week at an annual business forum in St. Petersburg that while Ukrainian attacks had caused damage, there was no threat to the Russian economy.
The latest attacks came as the Ukrainian president returned from talks in London with the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany, who said they were ready to support ceasefire talks.
Offensive with dead and injured
An overnight missile attack on the city of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region killed three people, including a 22-year-old pregnant woman, regional prosecutors reported on the Telegram app. The attack damaged residential buildings, garages and shops, they added, and six other people were injured.
In the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, a Russian drone strike sent 16 people seeking medical attention, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Authorities released photos of a burning building and firefighters battling the blaze and putting out charred cars.
In Sevastopol, in Russian-annexed Crimea and home to Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet, defense systems were repelling a drone attack, Russian-appointed local governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.
Reuters news agency was unable to independently verify the information.
Caution for resuming negotiations
US-led peace efforts between Ukraine and Russia have stalled as Washington focuses on finding a way forward.
American and Ukrainian officials continue to discuss a possible visit by Witkoff and Kushner to Kiev, according to a source familiar with the matter. It would be the first official visit to Ukraine for the two envoys, who have already traveled to Moscow for talks with Russia.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told the UN Security Council on Monday (8) that Nordic countries support Zelensky’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire and direct negotiations with Putin.
The Ukrainian leader noted on Sunday that he had met with Roman Abramovich in Kiev and that the Russian tycoon had offered to take a message to the Kremlin about the prospects for peace.
“I told this businessman, who came to deliver the message about a possible framework for diplomatic negotiations, that we were ready to talk from the beginning. We didn’t want this war and we want it to end,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine will not give up its territory.
A Ukrainian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the president after receiving no response to a message sent through Abramovich.
