Deadly Strikes Continue in Ukraine as Trump Says War's End May Be Near
Fresh Russian and Ukrainian attacks killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, hours after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and President Donald Trump said negotiators may be «closer than ever» to ending the war.
Fresh waves of Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more across both countries, hours after US President Donald Trump's envoy met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and the American leader said negotiators may be «closer than ever» to ending the war.
Ukrainian authorities reported one man killed in Sumy and one woman in Kharkiv, both in the north-east, three deaths in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region and two in the eastern Donetsk region. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said shelling wounded 15 people in the capital and damaged metro infrastructure near the Pivdenny bridge, disrupting traffic between several districts. Air-raid alerts warned of further ballistic missiles heading toward Kyiv, with residents urged to stay in shelters.
The violence was not confined to Ukraine. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were wounded during a mass launch of 630 drones toward the region, 163 of them aimed at the Russian capital. The governor of the neighbouring Tula region said air defences downed 70 drones, and one more person was wounded in Lipetsk, according to local officials. Russia's defence ministry said its air defences intercepted 808 Ukrainian drones overnight over regions including Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Rostov, Smolensk, Tver and Tula, as well as over Crimea and the Black Sea.
The press office of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said a Ukrainian drone struck a bus carrying staff home after the day shift, killing the driver. The plant, Europe's largest, has repeatedly been drawn into the fighting since Russian forces seized it early in the war.
The strikes came shortly after Witkoff met Putin for three hours in St Petersburg, a session also attended remotely by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Witkoff had travelled to Russia after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Oslo on Tuesday, a face-to-face aimed at repairing the deep rift between Trump and the Ukrainian leader. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that Russia is «in principle ready» to resume trilateral talks in mid-November, after the US midterm elections, and wants them to focus on post-war security. Zelensky has also said Ukraine favours resuming the three-way format.
Ushakov said Witkoff briefed Putin on «some new aspects in the approaches of the Europeans and Kyiv» that emerged in Oslo, though he added they «did not contain much substance». Preparations are also under way for an announced summit between Putin, Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, expected next month in Shenzhen, which Ushakov called «the first meeting of this kind in history».
During the talks, Witkoff praised Putin for granting Trump's request to release Stephen Hubbard, a retired American English teacher in his seventies detained on accusations of fighting for Ukraine, charges he has always denied. «You often speak of my president, President Trump, as very human; well, you are too, sir, and I acknowledge it,» Witkoff told Putin. On social media, Witkoff described the talks as «constructive» but said «a lot of important work remains to be done», adding that discussions between the United States, Ukraine and Russia would continue at technical level.
Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 promising to end the war within 24 hours, but more than a year of US-led negotiations has produced no significant breakthrough. In recent days a visibly frustrated Trump has again eased pressure on Ukraine to move closer to Putin, including an agreement to buy Russian diesel intended to lower prices. He also postponed sanctions on Russia's war machine, a decision he justified on Wednesday as necessary to secure Hubbard's release. «If we had imposed those sanctions, he could have been forgotten. You would never have seen him again,» Trump told reporters at the White House.
14
