Russian strikes kill 1 as US and Ukraine officers wrap up third day of diplomatic talks | EUROtoday

Russian missile, drone and shelling assaults in a single day and Sunday killed no less than three folks in Ukraine, after U.S. and Ukrainian officers wrapped up a 3rd day of talks geared toward ending the battle.

A person was killed in a drone assault on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv area Saturday evening, native officers mentioned, whereas a mixed missile and drone assault on infrastructure within the central metropolis of Kremenchuk prompted energy and water outages. Kremenchuk is residence to certainly one of Ukraine’s greatest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is attempting to cripple the Ukrainian energy grid and deny civilians entry to warmth, gentle and working water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officers name “weaponizing” the chilly.

Two folks had been killed and 7 others wounded Sunday in shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in keeping with the regional police.

The newest spherical of assaults got here as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Saturday night he had a “substantive phone call” with American officers engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He mentioned he had been given an replace over the cellphone by U.S. and Ukrainian officers on the talks.

“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

Speaking Saturday on the Reagan National Defense Forum, U.S. President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, mentioned efforts to finish the battle had been in “the last 10 meters.”

He mentioned a deal relied on the 2 excellent problems with “terrain, primarily the Donbas,” and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Russia controls most of Donbas, its identify for Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which, together with two southern areas, it illegally annexed three years in the past. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is in an space that has been underneath Russian management since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and isn’t in service, but it surely wants dependable energy to chill its six shutdown reactors and spent gasoline, to keep away from any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

Kellogg is because of go away his submit in January and was not current on the talks in Florida.

Separately, officers mentioned the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would take part in a gathering with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the Trump administration’s new nationwide safety technique. In feedback printed Sunday by Russian state information company RIA Novosti, he mentioned the technique was “encouraging.”

“There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he mentioned.

The doc launched Friday by the White House makes clear that the U.S. desires to enhance its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being handled as a world pariah and that ending the battle is a core U.S. curiosity to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

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Follow AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine