Ukraine-Russia war latest: One dead in Odesa as massive drone attacks target multiple cities across Ukraine

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv has sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks next week, and that he wanted to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire.

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.

“Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation. “The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions,” he added.

The president said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details.

Umerov, a former defence minister, was appointed last week as the head of the National Security and Defence Council and tasked with adding more momentum to the negotiations.

Russia has been pressing a grinding offensive along the eastern front in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. It has repeatedly said it is ready for a new round of talks but has not backed down from what Kyiv and its allies describe as its maximalist war aims.

US President Donald Trump, who has sharpened his tone against Russia in recent weeks amid worsening air strikes on Ukrainian cities, threatened harsher sanctions on Russia earlier this month if a peace deal was not reached within 50 days.

The UK has sanctioned a string of Russian spies and hackers, accusing them of carrying out a campaign to “destabilise Europe”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens.

“The Kremlin should be in no doubt: we see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it. That’s why we’re taking decisive action with sanctions against Russian spies.”

The European Union’s 18th sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine targets Moscow’s energy and financial sectors to limit its ability to fund war in Ukraine.

Key measures include a lower oil price cap, Nord Stream transaction ban, more shadow fleet sanctions, and a full ban on Russian bank deals.

“We are striking at the heart of Russia’s war machine,” EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X.

The measures are intended to ramp up pressure on Russia amid flagging peace negotiations, as well as targeting companies and countries that allow Moscow to evade existing sanctions.

Russia launched what has been described as a “hellish” aerial attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad overnight.

The head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergey Lysak, said the city had been bombarded for six-hours with a factory, fire station and five-storey residential building hit.

“A hellish night and morning for Pavlohrad. The most intense attack on the city. Explosion after explosion. Russian terrorists targeted it with missiles and drones,” he said.

It was one of a number of cities across the country that were targeted by Russian drones overnight. In the city of Odesa, one person was killed.

Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Russia on Saturday of deporting Ukrainians into Georgia and leaving them stranded there without proper documents hundreds of miles from their home.

Andrii Sybiha said Russia was stepping up the expulsions of Ukrainians – many of them former prisoners – over the southern frontier, rather than sending them directly over its border with Ukraine.

That amounted to Russia “weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens,” he added on X.

There was no immediate response from Moscow, which has denied accusations of mistreating or targeting civilians since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Since June, Russia has significantly increased the number of deported Ukrainian nationals, mostly former convicts, to the border with Georgia,” Sybiha wrote.

“As a result, dozens of people, many of whom lack proper documentation, have been stuck in the transit zone.”

A mass drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa has killed one person overnight, officials said.

Mayor Hennady Trukhanov said at least 20 drones converged on the city early on Saturday, setting ablaze at least one multi-storey apartment building and killing one resident.

Pictures posted online showed a fire engulfing floors near the top of one building as president Volodymyr Zelensky said six people were injured – including a child – in the attack.

Zelensky added over 300 drones and 30 missiles had been launched at Ukraine overnight overall, with several regions affected.