Russia said it has downed seven British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles over the past week, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to hold a meeting with Donald Trump on Sunday.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces were able to destroy the missiles, Russian media reported.
Mr Zelenskyy said the two leaders will discuss Ukraine territory and security guarantees and that the revised 20-point plan under discussion “is about 90% ready”.
Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine “would like the Europeans to be involved,” but doubted it would be possible at short notice.
The announced meeting is the latest development in an extensive US-led diplomatic push to close the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war, but efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Mr Zelensky’s announcement came after he said on Thursday he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The revised 20-point plan under discussion was made public on Wednesday and follows recent US-Ukraine talks in Miami.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces were able to destroy the missiles
Meanwhile, Russian overnight drone strikes damaged Slovakia-, Palau- and Liberia-flagged vessels in ports in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Friday.
In recent weeks, Russia has intensified attacks on the southern Odesa region, and Ukrainian officials said Moscow aimed to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea and sow chaos among civilians.
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The attacks caused power cuts and damaged elevators and civilian warehouses in the Odesa region, but there were no casualties in Friday’s strikes, Oleksiy Kuleba said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. Rostov regional governor Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
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Russian troops have also taken control of the settlement of Kosivstseve in the Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported on Friday.
Mr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday there had been “slow but steady progress” in talks to end the war, Moscow has given no indication it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, Russia has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum Kyiv has rejected.
Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.
