A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing five people and wounding 25, officials said, as Moscow pressed on with intensified daytime attacks.<\/p>\n
Russia has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime\u00a0attacks.<\/p>\n
The market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), the local prosecutor’s office said.<\/p>\n
Regional governor, Oleksandr Ganja, said in a Telegram post that three women and two men were killed.<\/p>\n
He added that a 14-year-old girl was among the 25 wounded and was in a “critical condition”.<\/p>\n
Attacks continued during the morning hours on Saturday, wounding six in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, near the front line, regional police said.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 286 drones overnight, of which 260 were intercepted.<\/p>\n
In the northern Sumy region, 11 people were wounded in strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure overnight, police said.<\/p>\n
Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building whose upper floors were engulfed in flames. Another attack killed a woman and wounded another two in the southeastern city of Kherson, which is close to the fighting.<\/p>\n
In Russia, a missile and drone attack on the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine left one person dead and four seriously wounded in the city of Taganrog, regional governor Yuri Slyussar said.<\/p>\n
On the Sea of Azov, a foreign cargo ship was damaged by falling drone debris and caught fire, he added.<\/p>\n
A family of three, including an eight-year-old child, was killed in a house by a nighttime Ukrainian drone strike that also targeted railway infrastructure in \u00a0Russian-occupied Lugansk, the Moscow-backed administration said. <\/p>\n
– Stalled talks –<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was on a surprise visit to Istanbul on Saturday for security talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.<\/p>\n
Zelensky this week signalled he was ready for a truce over the Orthodox Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received “clearly formulated” proposals.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace. Russia says it wants a permanent settlement instead of a brief ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
In comments to reporters, including AFP, published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.<\/p>\n
“The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions — during the war with Iran — to come to Kyiv,” Zelensky said.<\/p>\n
“The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let’s do it this way,” he added.<\/p>\n
Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.<\/p>\n
Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
He also suggested Ukraine could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure by Iran has rattled the global economy.<\/p>\n
He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv’s experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion.<\/p>\n
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