Russian strikes hit Kyiv after Witkoff meets Putin

Russia and Ukraine have traded a new barrage of attacks after a United States envoy met Russia’s president in St Petersburg to push for renewed talks on ending the war.

Russian attacks on Kyiv overnight into Thursday killed at least one person and injured 22, including four children, Ukraine’s national emergency service said.

Metro infrastructure was also damaged at the Pivdenny Bridge, which spans the Dnipro River, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

In Russia, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people were wounded after Ukraine launched a barrage of 630 drones on the region, 163 of which were sent to the capital city. He said most of the drones were intercepted.

The governor of the nearby Tula region said Russian air defences destroyed 70 drones. Another man was wounded in the Lipetsk region, its governor said.

The exchange of attacks came after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Constantine Palace in St Petersburg on Wednesday.

During Witkoff’s visit, Russia released jailed US teacher Stephen Hubbard as a goodwill gesture, prompting the US envoy to praise Putin as a “humanitarian”.

US President Donald Trump later said he believed the Russia-Ukraine war may be as close as it’s ever been to ending.

But the Kremlin was more guarded. While it said Moscow was “in principle” willing to restart US-mediated talks with Ukraine, it warned there was little “substance” in Ukrainian and European peace proposals.

In recent days, a frustrated Trump has once again pivoted away from Ukraine and back to Putin, trumpeting what he said was a deal for heavily sanctioned Russia to sell diesel and reduce fuel prices sent soaring by the US-Israel war on Iran.

Trump also delayed a new wave of Russia-related sanctions, a decision he defended on Wednesday as necessary to secure Hubbard’s release.

Witkoff told Putin Washington was “grateful” for the diesel deal, which sparked outrage in Kyiv and across Europe.

The war, Europe’s worst since World War II, has killed tens of thousands of people since Russia’s full-scale February 2022 invasion of its neighbour.

Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Thursday said “appeasement” would not stop Russia’s war campaign.

“Appeasement, servility, and flattery will not stop this war,” he wrote in a post on X. “Only strength will.”