Russia batters Ukraine’s Odesa and Zaporizhzhia as Kremlin warns peace talks will take time ...Saudi Arabia

By ILLIA NOVIKOV

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones battered the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and glide bombs hit Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said Tuesday, as the Kremlin again warned that negotiators are unlikely to obtain a swift breakthrough in peace talks on the war.

Ukrainian, British, French and U.S. officials are due to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the war. Anticipation is building over whether diplomatic efforts can stop more than three years of fighting since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Hostility has run deep since Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week that negotiations were “coming to a head” and insisted that neither side is “playing” him in his push to end the war. That came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the U.S. might soon back away from negotiations if they don’t progress.

Rubio has suggested that Wednesday’s meeting could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that “the settlement issue is so complex that it would be wrong to put some tight limits to it and try to set some short time frame for a settlement, a viable settlement — it would be a thankless task.”

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to visit Moscow again this week. Ushakov provided no further details.

Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks because it has battlefield momentum and wants to capture more Ukrainian land.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.

Latest attacks

Odesa came under a “massive attack” by Russian drones overnight, injuring at least three people, the head of the regional administration, Oleh Kiper, wrote on his Telegram page.

A residential building in a densely populated urban area, civilian infrastructure and an educational facility were hit, he said.

Later Tuesday, Russia hit the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with two massive aerial glide bombs — a retrofitted Soviet weapon that for months has used to lay waste to eastern Ukraine.

The attack killed a 69-year-old woman and injured 24 people, including four children, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that his earlier offer of a ceasefire covering civilian sites still stands. “Russia needs to be seriously prepared to talk about this,” Zelenskyy said. “There are no obstacles on the Ukrainian side and there will be none.”

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said there are no plans for talks on the proposal. He said Moscow is prepared to consider such a step but noted that reaching an agreement could take time.

“While talking about civilian infrastructure, it’s necessary to clearly define when such facilities can be a military target and when they can’t,” he said. “If a military meeting is held there, is it a civilian facility? It is. But is it a military target? Yes, it is. There are some nuances here that need to be discussed.”

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 54 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight, marking a resumption of long-range attacks that have blasted civilian areas and sown terror.

Russia has stepped up its use of Shahed drones, expanding its production of the weapon and refining its tactics, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a recent analysis.

After Putin declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, Ukraine said it was ready to reciprocate but said Russian attacks continued. Zelenskyy asserted that Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times.

The Associated Press was unable to verify whether a ceasefire was in place along the roughly 620-mile front line.

Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the spring-summer military campaign, Ukrainian and Western officials say.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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