Missiles Hit Near Odesa in Ukraine as New Mariupol Evacuation Bid Planned

Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
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Missiles Hit Near Odesa in Ukraine as New Mariupol Evacuation Bid Planned

Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP
Ukraine estimates 20,000 people have been killed in the war so far. Genya SAVILOV AFP

Missiles struck near Ukraine's southern port of Odesa on Sunday with Russia saying it had destroyed an oil refinery used by the Ukrainian military, while attempts to evacuate people from the devastated city of Mariupol were due to continue.

There was little sign of a breakthrough in efforts to negotiate an end to the five-week war, although Russia's chief negotiator said talks were due to resume on Monday.

In Odesa, the city council said "critical infrastructure facilities" were hit by missiles. No casualties were reported.

Russia's defense ministry said strikes by its military destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odesa. It said the facilities were used to supply Ukrainian troops near the city of Mykolaiv.

Odesa, on the Black Sea, is the main base for Ukraine's navy. It has been targeted by Russian forces seeking a land corridor to Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking breakaway province of Moldova which hosts Russian troops.

"Smoke is visible in some areas of the city. All relevant systems and structures are working ... No casualties reported," Vladyslav Nazarov, an officer of Ukraine's South Operational Command, said on Telegram.

Dmytro Lunin, governor of the central Poltava region, said the Kremenchug oil refinery, 350 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Odesa, had been destroyed in a separate rocket attack on Saturday.

Evacuation efforts in Mariupol and nearby Berdyansk, both also on Ukraine's southern shores, were due to continue with a convoy of buses being prepared for the operation with help from the Red Cross.

"Seven buses will try to get closer to Mariupol, accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in an online video posting.

The ICRC abandoned earlier attempts due to security concerns. Russia blamed the ICRC for the delays.

Mariupol is Russia's main target in Ukraine's southeastern region of Donbas, and tens of thousands of civilians there are trapped with scant access to food and water.

Peace talks

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said a draft deal was not ready for any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

On Saturday, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia raised hope for negotiations with Russia, saying enough progress had been made for direct talks between the two.

Medinsky said that while Ukraine was showing more realism by agreeing to be neutral, renouncing nuclear weapons, not joining a military bloc and refusing to host military bases, there had been no progress on other key Russia demands.

"I repeat again and again: Russia's position on Crimea and Donbas remains UNCHANGED," he said on Telegram, adding talks via video-conference would continue on Monday.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and has recognized declarations of independence by the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas area of eastern Ukraine which rose up against Kyiv's rule.

Bucha Destruction

Ukraine said on Saturday its forces had retaken all areas around Kyiv, claiming complete control of the capital region for the first time since Russia launched its invasion on Feb 24.

Russia has pulled back forces that had threatened Kyiv from the north to regroup for battles in eastern Ukraine.

There was no Russian comment on the claim that the Kyiv region was entirely in Ukrainian hands, which Reuters could not immediately verify.

The mayor of Bucha, a liberated town 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital, said 300 residents had been killed during a month-long occupation by the Russian army, and victims were seen in a mass grave and still lying on the streets.

"The bastards!" Vasily, a 66-year-old man said, weeping with rage as he looked at more than a dozen bodies in the road outside his house. "I'm sorry. The tank behind me was shooting. Dogs!"

The Kremlin and the Russian defense ministry in Moscow did not immediately reply to requests for comment when asked on Saturday about the bodies found in Bucha.

Moscow denies targeting civilians and rejects war crimes allegations.

Among those killed near Kyiv was Maksim Levin, a Ukrainian photographer and videographer who was working for a news website and was a long-time contributor to Reuters.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was appalled by atrocities in Bucha and voiced support for the International Criminal Court's inquiry into potential war crimes.

Ukraine's emergencies service said more than 1,500 explosives had been found in one day during a search of the village of Dmytrivka, west of the capital.

Zelenskiy warned in a video address: "They are mining all this territory. Houses are mined, equipment is mined, even the bodies of dead people." He did not cite evidence.

Russia's defense ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the allegations about mines. Reuters could not independently verify them.

Since the launch of what Putin called a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine, Russia has failed to capture a single major city and has instead laid siege to urban areas, uprooting a quarter of the country's population.

British military intelligence said Russian naval forces were maintaining a blockade along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, but the option of amphibious landings were becoming increasingly high-risk for Russia.

It said reported mines, the origin of which remained unclear and disputed, posed a serious risk to shipping in the Black Sea.



Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Insists on Face-to-Face Talks with Putin in Istanbul 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Insists on Face-to-Face Talks with Putin in Istanbul 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a joint press conference with Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, in Prague, Czech Republic, May 5, 2025. (Reuters)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will only attend talks on Ukraine if Russia's Vladimir Putin is also there, the Ukrainian leader's top aide said on Tuesday, challenging the Kremlin to show it is genuine about seeking peace.

US President Donald Trump has offered to attend Thursday's proposed meeting in Istanbul, which has become the focus of his attempts to end the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Putin has yet to say if he will take part.

Both Russia and Ukraine have sought to show they are working towards peace after Trump prioritized ending the war, but they have yet to agree any clear path.

Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine after ignoring a Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Trump then publicly told Zelenskiy to accept.

"President Zelenskiy will not meet with any other Russian representative in Istanbul, except Putin," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Zelenskiy's trip to Türkiye showed Kyiv was ready for talks but repeated Ukraine's stance that any negotiations must come after a ceasefire.

"Our position is very principled and very strong," Yermak said during a visit to Copenhagen.

Moscow has not said if Putin will travel to Türkiye.

"We are committed to a serious search for ways of a long-term peaceful settlement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday but would not comment further on the talks.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides. Most of Europe has rallied around Kyiv providing arms and financial aid, while Russia has turned to Iran and North Korea for support.

Trump has demanded the two nations end the war, threatening to walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

TRUMP GOES TO ISTANBUL?

If Zelenskiy and Putin, who make no secret of their mutual contempt, were to meet on Thursday it would be their first face-to-face meeting since December 2019.

Trump, who is in Saudi Arabia, and later due in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week, unexpectedly offered on Monday to travel to Istanbul, which straddles the divide between Europe and Asia.

"I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we've got to get it done," Trump said before leaving for Riyadh.

"Don't underestimate Thursday in Türkiye," he added.

Following the offer, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the "way forward for a ceasefire" in Ukraine with his Ukrainian, British, French, Polish, German and EU counterparts.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, held talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

FAR APART

Reuters reported last year that Putin was open to discussing a ceasefire with Trump, but that Moscow ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.

Ukraine has said it is ready for talks but a ceasefire is needed first, a position supported by its European allies.

Kyiv wants robust security guarantees as part of any peace deal and rejects a Russian proposal for restrictions on the size of its military. Territorial issues could be discussed once a ceasefire is in place, it says.

Putin has repeatedly referred to a 2022 deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion but never finalized.

Under the draft agreement, a copy of which Reuters has reviewed, Ukraine should agree to permanent neutrality in return for international security guarantees from the five permanent UN Security Council members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Ukraine and its European allies have told Russia that it would have to accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday or face new sanctions. The Kremlin replied, saying it would not respond to ultimatums.

France said on Monday European leaders, who met in Ukraine over the weekend, had asked the European Commission to put together new "massive" sanctions targeting Russia's oil and financial sector if Russia failed to agree a ceasefire.

Russia's forces control just under a fifth of Ukraine, including all of Crimea, almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. It also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, told the Izvestia media outlet in remarks published on Tuesday that the talks between Moscow and Kyiv can move further than the 2022 negotiations.

"If the Ukrainian delegation shows up at these talks with a mandate to abandon any ultimatums and look for common ground, I am sure that we could move forward," he said.