A 12-year-old boy was killed when Russian drones struck a house in central Ukraine, officials said Friday, as Ukraine carried out long-range attacks on a Russian port and oil refinery amid quiet U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year war.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to meet a Ukrainian delegation in Miami on Thursday, though neither side confirmed whether the talks took place. The meeting was planned shortly after the envoys held discussions with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin earlier in the week.
Officials have said little publicly about the latest peace efforts, and past attempts to break the stalemate have failed. Trump’s 28-point proposal was leaked earlier, but progress remains unclear. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his team in Miami sought updates from U.S. representatives about their conversations in Moscow. He and European allies have long accused Putin of using diplomacy to buy time while Russian forces push ahead on the battlefield.
In a video address late Thursday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine wants to know “what other pretexts Putin has come up with to drag out the war and to pressure Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov, speaking during Putin’s visit to India, repeated Moscow’s criticism of Europe’s position in the talks. He said Ukraine’s European partners were setting conditions that Russia would never accept, arguing that their demands hinder negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
In Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, local authorities said a Russian drone destroyed a house Thursday night, killing the boy and injuring two women. Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 137 drones of multiple types overnight.
Ukraine also carried out its own strikes. Drones hit the Temryuk sea port in Russia’s Krasnodar region, sparking a fire and damaging infrastructure, officials said. Ukrainian drones also targeted the city of Syzran on the Volga River. Local media reported, without official confirmation, that an oil refinery there was hit.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted 85 Ukrainian drones over several regions and occupied Crimea during the night.