Russian attacks kill at least 7 in Ukraine as talks on US peace plan continue

Driscoll, who became part of the American negotiating team less than two weeks ago, is heading up the latest phase of talks involving the terms of a possible peace settlement with Russia.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, declined to give details on how long the negotiations would last or what topics were being discussed, but noted that the Ukrainians were aware of the meeting and all sides have indicated they wanted to reach a deal to halt the fighting as quickly as possible.

Oleksandr Bevz, one of the Ukrainian delegates at Sunday's talks between the U.S. and Ukraine in Geneva, said that the numbers of points in the proposed settlement was reduced, but he denied reports that the 28-point U.S. peace plan now consisted of 19 points.

”(The document) is going to continue to change. We can confirm that it was reduced to take out points not relating to Ukraine, to exclude duplicates and for editing purposes," Bevz told The Associated Press, adding that some points relating solely to relations between Russia and the U.S. were excluded.

Long road to peace

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday that “the list of necessary steps to end the war can become workable,” after progress was made in Sunday's talks. He said that he planned to discuss “sensitive” outstanding issues with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Rustem Umerov, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, posted on X on Tuesday that Zelenskyy hoped to finalize a deal with Trump “at the earliest suitable date in November.”

Russian officials have been reserved in their comments on the peace plan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow is in touch with U.S. officials about peace efforts.

"We expect them to provide us with a version they consider an interim one in terms of completing the phase of coordinating this text with the Europeans and the Ukrainians,” Lavrov said.

European leaders have cautioned that the road to peace will be long.

'Glass rained down'

Russia fired 22 missiles of various types and more than 460 drones at Ukraine overnight, Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. The strikes knocked out water, electricity and heat in parts of Kyiv. Images showed a large fire spreading in a nine-story residential building in Kyiv’s eastern Dniprovskyi district.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said 20 people were wounded in Kyiv. The Russian Defense Ministry said that it targeted military-industrial facilities and energy assets. The strikes were a response to Ukrainian attacks on civilian objects in Russia, the ministry said.

Liubov Petrivna, a 90-year-old resident of a damaged building in the Dniprovskyi district, told the AP that “absolutely everything” in her apartment was shattered by the strike and “glass rained down” on her.

Petrivna said that she didn't believe in the peace plan now under discussion.

“No one will ever do anything about it,” she said. Russian President Vladimir Putin "won’t stop until he finishes us off.”

In a subsequent attack wave, four people were killed and three were wounded in a strike on a nonresidential building in Kyiv’s western Sviatoshynyi district, according to the head of the Kyiv city administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

Neighboring countries Romania and Moldova reported that a handful of drones violated their airspace, with one each landing on their territory.

Energy sites struck

Ukraine’s energy ministry said that energy infrastructure had been hit, without giving details. Ukraine’s emergency services said that six people, including two children, were wounded in a Russian attack on energy and port infrastructure in the Odesa region.

A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s southern Rostov region overnight killed three people and wounded eight others in the city of Taganrog not far from the border in Ukraine, Gov. Yuri Slyusar said in an online statement.

The overnight Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar was “one of the longest and most massive” and wounded six people, Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said.

Russian air defenses destroyed 249 Ukrainian drones overnight above various Russian regions and the occupied Crimean Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Ukraine said that its drones and missiles struck an aviation repair plant and a drone production facility, as well as an oil refinery and an oil terminal.

It was the fourth-largest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia since the start of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, according to an AP tally.

Plan mustn't be 'capitulation'

Oleksandr Bevz, a delegate from the Ukrainian side, told the AP that the Geneva talks had been “very constructive.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow hasn't received the updated U.S. peace plan that emerged from that meeting.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that the American plan for Ukraine “goes in the right direction,” but also cautioned it mustn't be “a capitulation” that enables Russia to later renew hostilities.

Any peace deal must include robust security guarantees for Ukraine and, more widely, for Europe, Macron said in an interview with broadcaster RTL.

Macron was speaking before a video conference meeting on Tuesday of countries, led by France and the U.K., that could help police any ceasefire with Russia.

Konstantin Toropin reported from Washington. John Leicester in Paris, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.