Russia launches deadly attacks on Kyiv despite holding peace talks with US

Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least six people in strikes that hit city buildings and energy infrastructure.

Water, electricity and heating were knocked out in parts of the capital, Kyiv. Video footage posted to Telegram showed a large fire spreading in a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv’s eastern district of Dniprovskyi.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were killed and five injured in Dniprovskyi and another residential building in the central Pechersk district was badly damaged.

In a subsequent wave of attacks, four people were killed and three were injured in a strike on a non-residential building in Kyiv’s western Svyatoshynyi district, according to the head of Kyiv city administration, Tymor Tkachenko.

Ukraine’s energy ministry also said 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 with Ukraine, governor Yuri Slyusar said.

The attack damaged private houses and multi-storey residential blocks, unspecified social facilities, a warehouse and a paint shop, Mr Slyusar said.

Russia fired 22 missiles of various types and over 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, 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,” Mr Zelensky wrote.

Russian air defences destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones overnight above various regions, including occupied Crimea, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. The majority of the drones — 116 — were shot down over the Black Sea, according to the defence ministry.

The attacks followed talks between US and Ukraine representatives in Geneva on Sunday about a US-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 on Monday it had not seen the updated plan.

US army secretary Dan Driscoll met Russian officials for several hours in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday after the Trump administration jump-started negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, a US official confirmed to The Associated Press.

Mr Driscoll, who became part of the US negotiating team less than two weeks ago, is now heading up the latest phase of talks involving the terms of a possible peace plan with Russia.

The US official said the Ukrainians were aware of the meeting.

They would not offer details on how long the negotiations were expected to last or what topics were being discussed but noted all sides have indicated they wanted to reach a deal to halt the fighting as quickly as possible.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that the US-brokered peace plan “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 should not be restricted so it can defend the country in peacetime.

“We want peace but we don’t want a peace 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,” Mr Macron said.

Peace proposals that Ukraine has been discussing with Trump administration envoys and European allies “go 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 sceptical about the plan’s chances of success. “There’s only one person who doesn’t want peace – it’s Russia.”