Russian drone strike kills one in Odesa ahead of Geneva peace talks

A Russian drone strike killed one person in Odesa ahead of new US-brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Geneva next week. Fighting continues along the front line as both sides face a June deadline to reach an agreement.

Kyiv: A Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Odesa killed one person, officials said on Saturday, ahead of fresh talks next week aimed at ending the war.

The drone hit a residential building in the Black Sea port city, leaving an older woman dead, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said on Saturday.

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On Friday, a Ukrainian missile strike killed two people and wounded five in the Russian border city of Belgorod, according to regional Gov Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Meanwhile, another round of US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine will take place next week in Geneva, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbour, officials in Moscow and Kyiv said on Friday.

The discussions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, confirmed the new round of negotiations.

The talks take place against a backdrop of continued fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line, relentless Russian bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine and the country’s power grid, and Kyiv’s almost daily long-range drone attacks on war-related assets on Russian soil.

Previous US-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Zelenskyy said last week that the United States has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal. Previous deadlines given by US President Donald Trump have passed largely without consequence.