Diplomatic efforts to end war continue, Russian attack kills four

Russian missiles struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing four people and injuring 40 others, authorities said.

Unconfirmed reports said ballistic missiles were used in Monday morning’s attack.

Video shared online showed a massive explosion on the side of a highway, and local media said office buildings, cars and shops were hit or severely damaged.

Dnipro is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the front line and has been regularly attacked by Russia since Moscow began a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The attack comes a day before U.S. envoy Steve Witkov is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. Vitkov has visited the Russian president several times this year but has never been to Kyiv.

A Ukrainian delegation met with Witkov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Florida on Sunday.

Zelensky said on Monday that the talks were “very constructive” but there were “tough issues” that needed to be resolved, echoing Rubio’s remarks that the meetings were “productive” but “there is more work to be done.”

The Florida meeting was the latest step in weeks of intense “shuttle diplomacy” in which Ukrainian and Russian delegations have separately approached U.S. officials to discuss peace plans.

However, despite their efforts, there remain significant differences in the positions of Moscow and Kiev.

Russia has refused to abandon its core demand that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the Donbas region it still controls, while Kyiv insists it will never do so.

“If they don’t withdraw their troops, we will achieve this by force,” Vladimir Putin said. Zelensky responded that Russia “disdained” efforts to “really end the war.”

Questions surrounding Ukraine’s future security are also at the center of debate. Kyiv and its European partners are eager for Ukraine to receive security guarantees, such as joining NATO, to protect it from another attack.

But Russia strongly opposes this approach, and Donald Trump has ruled out allowing Ukraine to join the military alliance.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Paris to drum up support from French President Emmanuel Macron and will travel to Ireland on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, Kyiv and Europeans have grown increasingly concerned that the United States is more willing to accept Russian demands than Ukraine is and that Europe is being excluded from the negotiating table.

Zelensky’s domestic political standing has also been undermined by corruption scandals. His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also led the Ukrainian delegation to the peace talks, He resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators raided his home – although he has not been accused of wrongdoing. Two cabinet ministers were also fired.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that Ukraine had “some tough little problems” and reiterated his view that both Russia and Ukraine want an end to the war.

Since Russia’s invasion on February 24, 2022, tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured, and at least 7 million people have become refugees abroad.

The conflict between the two former Soviet states dates back to 2014, when Ukraine’s pro-Russian president was overthrown and Russia responded by annexing Crimea and supporting an armed uprising in eastern Ukraine.