Ukrainian and Russian officials have claimed battlefield successes in the more than four-year war, as Russian airstrikes against Ukraine continue.
At least four people were killed in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian city of Slaviansk, regional authorities said Tuesday.
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Slaviansk Governor Vadym Filashkin confirmed the death toll on Tuesday and said 16 other people were injured, including a 14-year-old girl. He said Russian forces dropped three guided bombs on the city.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attack.
Overnight drone strikes on three other Ukrainian cities injured at least 17 people, including two children, emergency services said.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 122 of the 137 drones Russia launched overnight.
The belligerents demand advance payments
Ukrainian forces have recently recaptured almost all of the territory of the southeastern industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk during a counteroffensive, driving Russian troops from more than 400 square kilometers (150 square miles), Maj. Gen. Oleksandr Komarenko said in an interview published Tuesday by local media outlet RBC-Ukraine.
He described the overall situation on the front line as difficult but under control, with the most intense fighting continuing near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine and Oleksandrivka in the south, where he said Russian forces have concentrated their main effort.
There was no independent verification of his description of the military situation.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Monday that recent Ukrainian counterattacks “are generating tactical, operational and strategic effects that may alter Russia’s offensive campaign plan for spring-summer 2026.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian forces have expanded their advances in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, the capture of which Moscow has made one of the targets of its invasion. Ukraine controlled about 25 percent of the Donbas six months ago, but now owns only 15 to 17 percent, Putin said.
In Russia, the governor of the Bryansk border region said a Ukrainian missile attack on the city of Bryansk had killed at least six people and wounded 37 others.
Alexander Bogomaz said the dead were civilians and the wounded were admitted to the Bryansk regional hospital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack hit a Russian missile plant.
At the same time, a United Nations investigation found that the deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 had constituted “crimes against humanity.”
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and five other Russian officials in 2023 for the alleged illegal deportation of children, which Moscow denies and said it has been voluntarily evacuating people from a war zone.
Trilateral talks ‘next week’
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told news outlet CNBC on Tuesday that the next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States would likely be “sometime next week.”
The trilateral talks were first held in January in the United Arab Emirates; A second meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland, in February. Last year, Russia and Ukraine also held three rounds of talks in Turkiye, but so far the two countries are no closer to an agreement as key issues, including Russian control of Ukrainian territory, remain unresolved.
Moscow has repeatedly said it would only accept a deal that allows it to retain the territories it has seized, while Ukraine has said its territory must be returned in any deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Turkiye was prepared to host the next round of trilateral talks after speaking with his Turkish counterpart, President Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday.
