Ukraine’s representatives are preparing for renewed peace talks in the US, while dramatic footage has shown Russian tankers being hit by Ukrainian naval drones.
On Saturday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a delegation headed by national security chief Rustem Umerov was on its way to “swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war.”
They were set to be met in Florida by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a senior US official told Reuters news agency.
After the US-Ukraine talks, a US delegation is expected to travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The talks come after Mr Trump released a 28-point proposal last week which would hand swathes of land to Russia and limit the size of Kyiv’s military.
Many saw it as heavily favouring Russia, and it led Mr Zelenskyy to swiftly engage with American negotiators.
In his evening address on Saturday, the Ukrainian president said: “The American side is demonstrating a constructive approach, and in the coming days it is feasible to flesh out the steps to determine how to bring the war to a dignified end.”
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His team in the US is without his former chief of staff Andrii Yermak, who was previously the country’s lead negotiator, as he quit on Friday hours after anti-corruption officials raided his home amid a major corruption scandal that has shaken the country.
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Russian tankers hit by naval drones
Footage from earlier on Saturday showed two so-called ‘shadow fleet’ tankers being hit by Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea.
The joint operation was run by Ukraine’s security service, SBU, and Ukraine’s navy, an SBU official told Reuters, adding that both ships “sustained critical damage” that took them out of service.
The sanctioned tankers were heading to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, the official said.
From the footage, the tankers have been identified as the Kairos and Virat.
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The 274m-long Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire while en route from Egypt to Russia yesterday, Turkey’s transport ministry said. Its crew was evacuated by rescue boats while efforts to extinguish the fire continued.
The Virat was reportedly struck some 35 nautical miles offshore. It was attacked by unmanned vessels, sustaining minor damage to its starboard side above the waterline, the Turkish ministry said. It said the vessel was in stable condition and the crew in good health.
Russia deploys the fleet of often ageing, uninsured and unmarked tankers to circumvent sanctions on its oil exports, which continue to fuel the war in Ukraine.
Three killed in aerial attacks on Ukraine
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Russian drone and missile attacks in and around Kyiv killed at least three people on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
The aerial assault saw about 30 other people injured in Kyiv, largely due to falling debris from intercepted Russian drones hitting residential buildings, according to city mayor Vitali Klitschko.
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Mr Zelenskyy said Russia fired 36 cruise and ballistic missiles and around 600 drones in the overnight attack.
They also struck Ukrainian energy facilities, leaving around 600,000 people without power, according to officials.
