Ukraine launched drone attacks on cities in southern Russia, killing one person and injuring at least 16 more — just a day before President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
A Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in Rostov-on-Don, injuring 13 people who were transferred to medical facilities for treatment, according to the region’s Gov. Yury Slyusar.
In another attack, Ukraine’s drone strike in Belgorod injured three people, according to local officials. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region, posted a video appearing to show the drone striking a car in the city, located about 24 miles north of the Ukraine border.
Gladkov, in another Thursday post on Telegram, said that a Ukrainian drone struck a car, killing one individual in the village of Pristen.
Ukraine’s officials have not commented on the attacks.
The governor of the Volgograd region, Andrei Bocharov, claimed late Wednesday that debris from a Ukrainian military drone attack caused oil to spill at a local refinery and catch fire.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said its defense systems intercepted 44 of Ukraine’s drones, destroying or intercepting nine over the Volgograd region, on Wednesday and early Thursday.
The drone attacks come as the Russian military has made advances in the eastern region of Donetsk this week, forcing Ukraine’s 1st “Azov” Corps to engage and contain the offensive.
Trump is set to huddle with Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, the Russian president’s first visit to the U.S. since 2015.
Putin and Trump will hold a joint press conference after their meeting, where they will likely discuss the developments on the battlefield in eastern Europe.
“The president wants to exhaust all options to try to bring this war to a peaceful resolution,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during her appearance on “Fox & Friends” early Thursday.
Trump and Putin’s last in-person meeting was in Helsinki in 2018 during Trump’s first White House term.
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