A child was killed overnight into Tuesday, when a Russian glide bomb hit an apartment block in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, local officials said. Six areas of the capital Kyiv had earlier come under a combined drone and missile attack.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces said they had pushed back more than 50 attacks in the Pokrovsk area of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated much of its firepower in recent months. Russian sabotage groups have already tried to enter the city, according to Ukraine’s military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Moscow has not commented on the peace talks planned to take place in Istanbul. Two rounds took place in the city in May and June and led to a series of prisoner exchanges.
Russia’s RIA news agency, quoting a source, said the latest round of talks would take place over two days, on Thursday and Friday.
A Turkish government spokesperson said Wednesday’s talks would take place in the same venue where previous negotiations in May and June failed to work towards a ceasefire, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
This week’s talks will be yet another attempt to bring an end to the war that has been going on for more than three years, and will come after Trump expressed frustration with Vladimir Putin. The US president told the BBC he was “disappointed” but “not done” with the Russian leader.