Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: Putin strikes Odesa hours after Nato chief’s go to

The drone attack sparked fires and damaged homes and civilian infrastructure, officials of the southern Ukrainian region said early today.

“The enemy has again attacked Odesa with a massive drone attack,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the region whose administrative centre is the city of Odesa, said on his Telegram channel, though the full scale of the attack was not clear.

Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian port city came just hours after Nato secretary general Mark Rutte was visiting the region with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian defence units destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, nine drones were destroyed over the southern Voronezh region and eight over the border Belgorod region, and the rest were downed over the Kursk, Lipetsk and Moscow regions, and over the Crimean Peninsula, the ministry said in a post on Telegram.

Russian officials do not detail the total number of drones launched or the drones that caused damage.

Economic partnerships between the US and Russia could prove to be an incentive to Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“There is an incentive for Russia to end this war and perhaps that could be economic partnerships with the United States. But we need to see a ceasefire first and the president and the presidential envoy, Witkoff, made that very clear to the Russians,” Ms Leavitt said last night at a press briefing.

She also confirmed that the US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s one-on-one meeting with Mr Putin last week was “productive”.

“(Witkoff) believes that Russia wants to end this war and the president believes that as well,” she said.

A Russian soldier has been jailed for 15 years after he deserted the military and voluntarily surrendered to Ukraine.

In what is a Russian military court’s first such prosecution, the crime of voluntary surrender, which is punishable by between three and 10 years in prison, was first introduced in September 2022.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, a court on the far eastern Russian island of Sakhalin found soldier Roman Ivanishin guilty of voluntary surrender, of attempting to voluntarily surrender, and of desertion.

Ivanishin, who was reported to have denied all the charges, will serve his sentence in a maximum security facility. Local media reported that his trial was held behind closed doors.

Soon after the massacre in Sumy, where two Iskander missiles slammed into the provincial Ukrainian capital killing 35 people, including two children, Trump sloughed off the atrocity by claiming it had been a Russian mistake. Shocking, but not surprising, as Trump has consistently taken the Russian side at every opportunity this year.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said talks with the US regarding a minerals deal were “positive”, and that more meetings were expected.

Mr Zelensky said meetings regarding the deal would continue at a technical level throughout the week.

Envoys from Ukraine, Britain, France and Turkey are meeting to discuss Black Sea security this week, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.

“This is a military meeting on security in the Black Sea, first of all, a coalition of the willing, appropriate steps,” Mr Zelensky said in Odesa, speaking alongside Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.

Mr Zelensky said the meetings would take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether meetings were already ongoing.

“There are already quite a few such meetings, in various formats,” he added.

“Turkey has in 2022 already successfully agreed a ceasefire when it came to a greater grain deal… let’s be positive on the fact that Turkey, again, tries to bring together all relevant parties, And let’s hope they are successful,” Mr Rutte said.

“We are talking about the presence of a contingent at sea, and we believe that Turkey can have a serious place in future security guarantees for the sea,” Mr Zelensky said.

“This is not about ending the war, this is about what will happen after the ceasefire – security guarantees,” he said.

Russia launched an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, just hours after Nato chief Mark Rutte visited the region with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

The drone attack has damaged residential buildings, warehouses and civilian infrastructure, Ukrainian officials from the region said early this morning.

“The enemy has again attacked Odesa with a massive drone attack,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region of which the city of Odesa is the administrative centre, said on his Telegram channel.

According to preliminary information, there were no injuries, Odesa’s mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov said on Telegram.

He posted photos of a residential and other buildings nearly destroyed and of a dog peeking from behind a pile of wood.

The full scale of the attack is not immediately clear.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has said the alliance’s support for Ukraine remains “unwavering” as he spoke from the war-hit nation’s port city of Odesa.

“I’m here today because I believe Ukraine’s people deserve real peace, real safety and security in their country, in their homes,” Mr Rutte said during a joint news conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

The two met with wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a hospital in Odesa.

“These discussions are not easy, not least in the wake of this horrific violence,” Mr Rutte said, referring to the recent strikes. “But we all support President Trump’s push for peace.

“His visit came days after two Russian ballistic missiles struck the city of Sumy on Palm Sunday morning, killing at least 35 people, including two children, and injuring 119.

The Nato chief also emphasised that more than €20bn (£17bn) in security assistance has already been pledged by Nato allies in the first three months of the year.