Ukraine negotiators to hold talks in US on plan to end war / Photo: © AFP
Ukraine negotiators to hold talks in US on plan to end war
Ukrainian negotiators are due to hold talks in the United States on Sunday on Washington's plan to end the war with Russia, with Kyiv facing pressure on both the military and political fronts.
As Russia advances on the front line, its forces targeted Ukraine's capital and the region for two nights in a row ahead of the talks in the United States.
A drone attack in the outskirts of Kyiv killed one person and wounded 11 on Saturday night, the regional governor said.
Hours earlier, a Ukrainian security source said Kyiv was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Black Sea that it believed were covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil.
The US talks come amid turbulence for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government -- a blockbuster corruption probe forced him to sack his chief of staff and top negotiator Andriy Yermak on Friday.
The Ukraine team -- now led by Rustem Umerov -- is due to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff in Florida on Sunday, a US official said.
Washington has put forward a plan to end the more than three-year conflict that it is seeking to finalise with Moscow and Kyiv's approval.
An initial 28-point proposal -- drafted without input from Ukraine's European allies -- would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.
The United States pared back the original draft following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but the current contents remain unclear.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Zelensky for talks in Paris, the French presidency announced.
- Russian oil terminal hit -
Hours before Ukraine's delegation was to depart, one of Russia's largest oil terminals halted operations on Saturday following an attack by sea drones.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a group that includes US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil and which owns the terminal, called the strike a "terrorist attack".
Ukraine, which did not comment on the incident, regularly targets Russian energy facilities in a bid to sap the country's war chest as the conflict grinds through its fourth year.
The CPC pipeline, which begins in Kazakhstan and ends at the terminal, is a major conduit for Kazakh oil and one of the world's largest by volume, handling around one percent of global supplies.
However, a Ukrainian source claimed responsibility for attacks on two ships in the Black Sea allegedly covertly transporting sanctioned Russian oil.
The Virat and the Kairos, which were empty, were rocked by explosions off Turkey's coast late Friday, according to the Turkish transport ministry.
One of the two was struck again early Saturday, the ministry said.
"Modernised Sea Baby naval drones successfully targeted the vessels," a source in Ukraine's SBU security service told AFP.
The source shared a video that purported to show sea drones gliding towards the two ships, before sparking explosions.
- Drone attacks -
Russia has kept up its night-time attacks on its neighbour.
Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, reported in the early hours of Sunday "another enemy drone attack".
"Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy attack on Vyshgorod, one person was killed and 11 were wounded. Among them is one child," Kalashnyk wrote on Telegram.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, says it struck energy infrastructure powering Ukraine's military-industrial complex.
Ukraine says Russia's attacks are a cynical ploy to wear down its civilian population.
After Saturday night's intense explosions that kept many in the capital awake, Galyna Bondarenko, a Ukrainian media worker, told AFP in Kyiv that the blast had sent debris flying into her home.
"There was a piece of debris next to the bed, which hit the bed and got stuck," she said.
(V.Sørensen--DTZ)
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