Zelenskiy announces ‘substantive’ call with US envoy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that he had a long and “important” phone call with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“Ukraine is determined to continue working in good faith with the American side to truly achieve peace. We agreed on the next steps and formats of negotiations with the United States,” Zelenskiy told X. he said.

Witkoff and Kushner held two days of talks with Ukraine’s senior negotiator Rustem Umerov in Miami this week, which both sides described as “constructive discussions on advancing a credible path to a lasting and just peace in Ukraine.”

Witkoff was expected to brief Umerov about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in a sweeping night attack, triggering air raid warnings across the country and coinciding with Ukraine celebrating Armed Forces Day.

The air force reported that Ukrainian forces shot and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, and 29 points were hit.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that at least eight people were injured in the attacks.

Among them, at least three people were injured in the Kyiv region, according to local officials.

Drone sightings were reported as far west as the Lviv region of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had launched a new attack on Russia’s oil industry, targeting a refinery in Ryazan, about 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

The Ukrainian General Staff stated that an attack on a facility was detected on social media, adding that the refinery provided supplies to the Russian armed forces.

The governor of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, said on Telegram that debris fell on the floor of an industrial facility and that there was no loss of life or major damage.

With AP and DPA