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Russian Drones Hammer Ukraine’s Odesa as Czech Leader Visits 

Municipal workers clean up after Russian drones hit shops during the night attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
Municipal workers clean up after Russian drones hit shops during the night attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
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Russian Drones Hammer Ukraine’s Odesa as Czech Leader Visits 

Municipal workers clean up after Russian drones hit shops during the night attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)
Municipal workers clean up after Russian drones hit shops during the night attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP)

Russia pounded Ukraine's Black Sea city of Odesa with one of its biggest drone attacks late on Thursday, injuring three teenagers and sparking fires as the Czech president visited, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack comes as the United States is pushing for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, and hoping to agree a partial ceasefire that would halt strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides.

Czech President Petr Pavel, a vocal backer of Kyiv who has led an effort to source more than one million artillery shells for Ukraine's war effort, was in the port city for talks with regional officials at the time of the strikes.

"Significantly, it was during our meeting that the enemy once again massively attacked the Odesa region," Governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

The long-range drones buzzed into the city in several waves, damaging infrastructure, residential houses and commercial buildings, and causing multiple fires, the interior ministry said.

Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst, told Reuters that Russia used new tactics for the attack, having its drones descend from a higher altitude than usual and at high speeds to make it harder for Ukraine's air defenses.

He said it was one of the "most massive" attacks on Odesa since Russia invaded in February 2022: "It was intimidation. Terror against the civilian population."

Both Russia and Ukraine have agreed during separate talks with US officials that they are ready for a moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure. Moscow rejected a more comprehensive 30-day ceasefire.

Ukrainian, US and Russian delegations are due to meet in Saudi Arabia separately on Monday to discuss the details, officials have said.

Russia launched a total of 214 drones at Ukraine overnight, the air force said. It did not specify how many drones targeted Odesa specifically.

The air force said it shot down 114 of the drones and that another 81 drones were "lost", its term for those suppressed using electronic warfare defenses.

Ukraine has used drones to continue striking targets in Russia, hitting oil infrastructure and a strategic bomber base in recent days.

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Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
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Iran Top Diplomat Rejects Direct Negotiations with US

Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
Iranian demonstrators walk on representations of the Israeli and US flags during the annual anti-Israeli Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day rally in support of Palestinians, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday rejected direct negotiations with the United States as "meaningless", after US President Donald Trump said he would prefer direct talks with Tehran.

Trump had called last month on Tehran to hold negotiations on its nuclear program with Washington, but threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails.

On Thursday, the US president said he would prefer to hold "direct talks" with Iran.

"I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries," he argued.

But on Sunday, Araghchi said "direct negotiations would be meaningless with a party that constantly threatens to resort to force in violation of the UN Charter and that expresses contradictory positions from its various officials".

"We remain committed to diplomacy and are ready to try the path of indirect negotiations," he added, according to a foreign ministry statement.

"Iran keeps itself prepared for all possible or probable events, and just as it is serious in diplomacy and negotiations, it will also be decisive and serious in defending its national interests and sovereignty," Araghchi said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was willing to engage in dialogue with the US "on equal footing".

He also questioned Washington's sincerity in calling for negotiations, saying "if you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?"

- Nuclear program -

Western countries, led by the United States, have for decades accused Tehran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran rejects the allegation and maintains that its nuclear activities exist solely for civilian purposes.

On Saturday Hossein Salami, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said the country was "ready" for war.

"We are not worried about war at all. We will not be the initiators of war, but we are ready for any war," the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying.

In 2015, Iran reached a landmark deal with the permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the United States, France, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, to regulate its nuclear activities.

The 2015 agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon.

In 2018, during Trump's first term in office, the United States withdrew from the agreement and reinstated biting sanctions on Iran.

A year later, Iran began rolling back on its commitments under the agreement and accelerated its nuclear program.

On Monday, Ali Larijani, a close adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei, warned that while Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, it would "have no choice but to do so" in the event of an attack against it.