Ukraine: Russian Missiles Kill One, Troops Press on Avdiivka

A Ukrainian soldier standing next to a military vehicle. (AP)
A Ukrainian soldier standing next to a military vehicle. (AP)
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Ukraine: Russian Missiles Kill One, Troops Press on Avdiivka

A Ukrainian soldier standing next to a military vehicle. (AP)
A Ukrainian soldier standing next to a military vehicle. (AP)

Russian warplanes fired 19 long-range missiles at targets in Ukraine on Friday, killing one civilian in a central region, wounding eight and damaging an industrial facility and power lines, Ukrainian officials said.

On the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line in the war against Russia, Ukrainian officials said Moscow's forces pressed on with a drive to encircle the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka.

Officials also reported heavy battles in the northeast near Kupiansk, a town seized by Russian forces soon after their February 2022 invasion but later retaken by Ukraine.

The missile strike on Friday morning was the first big salvo Russia has fired at targets, including the Ukrainian capital, in weeks. Russia has mainly been using drones for its overnight attacks, according to Reuters.

One person was killed and eight injured in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app. Two wounded were in serious condition.

Air defenses shot down 14 incoming missiles over the region outside Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk region, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.

The strike damaged power lines, an unnamed industrial facility and more than 20 homes in the towns of Pavlohrad and Ternivka and two villages, Lysak said. Images from the site, posted on social media, showed buildings with damaged rooftops and shattered windows.

Russia used seven Tu-95 bombers to launch missiles at different regions across the country, the air force said.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the Ukrainian capital had been targeted but that all the missiles were downed by air defenses as they approached.

Missile debris smashed windows and walls in private homes in the Kyiv region, Governor Ruslan Kravchenko said, with air alerts in force for two hours. Officials reported an earlier overnight missile attack on the northeastern Kharkiv region.

- PRESSING ON DEFENSIVE LINES

In Avdiivka, dominated by a vast coking plant, Ukraine's general staff said its forces had repelled 32 enemy attacks.

The head of the military administration in the town, less than 12 km (eight miles) from the outskirts of the Moscow-held regional capital of Donetsk, said Russian forces were "pressing on the entire defensive line around the town".

Moscow's forces have been inching forward on the flanks to try to cut supply lines.

Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said Russian forces had suffered heavy losses around the town. He told national television Russian forces had dropped about 450 aerial bombs in the region and were bringing in reserves.

The Russian Defense Ministry rarely mentions Avdiivka in its reports, but the war blog Rybar said on Friday that battles were raging by the coking plant and near Stepove village north of the city. Rybar acknowledged that the front was all but unchanged.

Further north, Ukrainian military spokesperson Volodymyr Fitio said Russian forces were deploying more reserves in a drive on the village of Synkivka - seen as a foothold on any attempt to retake Kupiansk, 14 km (nine miles) distant.



Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
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Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran's Nuclear Program Return to Oman

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his team members take part in negotiations with the US, in Rome, Italy, April 19, 2025. Abbas Araghchi via Telegram/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/ Handout via REUTERS A

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program will return Saturday to the sultanate of Oman, where experts on both sides will start hammering the technical details of any possible deal.

The talks seek to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on Iran closing in on half a century of enmity. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.

Neither Iran nor the US have offered any explanation on why the talks will return to Muscat, the Omani capital nestled in the Hajar Mountains. Oman has been a mediator between the countries. Last weekend's talks in Rome offered a more-equal flight distance between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who are leading the negotiations.

But Rome remains in mourning after the death of Pope Francis, whose funeral will be Saturday. And Iranian state television, in covering last weekend's talks, complained at length on air about the “paparazzi” gathered across the street from the Omani Embassy in Rome's Camilluccia neighborhood.

“As you can see, unlike the first round of talks where the presence of journalists was limited and the Omanis had special management in place to prevent a large and chaotic media presence from disrupting the negotiations, this time in Rome, Italy, that kind of control hasn’t been applied,” said Hosnieh Sadat Shobeiri, an Iranian state TV journalist dressed in gray, all-encompassing chador.

“Because of the crowd we’re seeing here, with media outlets from various countries — including some that are anti-Iran — it’s possible that we’ll hear more conflicting reports and news aimed at disrupting the talks coming out of Rome compared to Oman.”

'Peaceful use of nuclear energy'

The Muscat talks come as Iran appears to have lined up Chinese and Russian support. Araghchi traveled to Moscow last week and this week visited Beijing.

On Thursday, Chinese, Iran and Russian representatives met the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that likely will verify compliance with any accord like it did with Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. That deal included China and Russia, as well as France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, Iran has greatly restricted the IAEA's inspections — leading to fears internationally that centrifuges and other nuclear material could be diverted.

The IAEA offered no readout from the talks, but China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Friday described the three nations as saying the agency has “the necessary potential and expertise to contribute constructively to this process.”

“China, Russia and Iran emphasized that political and diplomatic engagement based on mutual respect remains the only viable and practical path for resolving the Iran nuclear issue,” the report said. It added that China respects Iran's “right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

The Trump administration has kept France, Germany and the UK out of its direct negotiations with Iran, something similarly reflected in Witkoff's negotiations with Russia over ending its war on Ukraine. Witkoff traveled Friday to Moscow ahead of Saturday's meeting in Muscat.

Araghchi meanwhile has said he's open to visiting Berlin, London and Paris to discuss the negotiations.

“The ball is now in the E3’s court,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X on Thursday, using an acronym for the countries. “They have an opportunity to do away with the grip of Special Interest groups and forge a different path. How we act at this critical junction is likely to define the foreseeable future.”

US stance on enrichment hardens Two Iranian deputy foreign ministers, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi and Kazem Gharibabadi, are expected to lead Tehran’s expert team, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported. Takht-e Ravanchi took part in the 2015 nuclear talks, while Gharibabadi as well as been involved in atomic negotiations.

The US technical team, which is expected to arrive in Oman on Friday, will be led by Michael Anton, the director of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's policy planning staff. Anton does not have the nuclear policy experience of those who led America's efforts in the 2015 talks.

However, he was an early supporter of Trump, describing the 2016 election as a “charge the cockpit or you die” vote. “A Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian Roulette with a semi-auto,” Anton wrote. “With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.” He also criticized “Iran sycophancy” in the same essay.

Rubio, speaking on a podcast released this week, also kept up a Trump line that Iran needed to stop its enrichment of uranium entirely.

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries can have one, and that is they import enriched material,” Rubio said.

Iran ‘on high alert’

But Iran has insisted that keeping its enrichment is key. Witkoff also has muddied the issue by first suggesting in a television interview that Iran could enrich uranium at 3.67%, then later saying that all enrichment must stop.

Meanwhile, one more wildcard is Israel, whose devastating war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip grinds on. Trump initially announced the Iran talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. But Israel, which for years has targeted Iran's nuclear program with attacks on its facilities and scientists, has kept open the possibility of airstrikes to destroy Tehran's enrichment sites.

On Monday, Israel's military conducted drills preparing for possible new Iranian missile attacks, the country's public broadcaster KAN reported.

“Our security services are on high alert given past instances of attempted sabotage and assassination operations designed to provoke a legitimate response,” Araghchi wrote on Wednesday in a post on X.