Ukrainian drone strikes killed two people in Russia’s border regions ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s planned trip to Paris for talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war, officials said Sunday.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car.
Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in Russia’s Kursk region, Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said Sunday.
In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday, the country’s State Emergency Service said.
The latest attacks came as the death toll from a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv on Friday increased to five, after body parts were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
The reported violence also unfolded after national security advisers from Europe and other allies visited Kyiv on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and economic support, as a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the war intensifies.
Zelenskyy said Saturday that work on the peace proposals could now accelerate after Ukraine shared all documents under discussion with the 18 national security advisers, including documents related to security guarantees.
Zelenskyy said representatives from Ukraine’s General Staff and the military sector would meet on Monday in Paris.
He said European leaders would meet Tuesday in Paris, and he hoped documents on security guarantees would be finalized, adding that there would also be meetings with U.S. representatives in Paris.