Ukraine updates: 3 injured in Odesa drone attack

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has canceled plans to attend talks in London aimed at ending the war in Ukraine on Wednesday.

In a post on X, Rubio said he had spoken to his British counterpart David Lammy ahead of what he hoped would be "substantive and good technical meetings."

"I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months," Rubio said.

White House Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg will lead the US delegation in Rubio's stead.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that Rubio's change of plans was not a reflection of Washington's expectations of the London meetings.

"In this particular instance, while the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending. But that is not a statement regarding the meetings. It's a statement about
logistical issues in his schedule," Bruce told a regular news briefing.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he hopes Ukraine and Russia "will make a deal this week" to end the three-year war.

The meetings in London come after France hosted a similar gathering of Ukraine's European and US allies in Paris last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine is open to dialogue with Russia, but only after a ceasefire is in place. 

"We are ready to record that after a ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends," the Ukrainian president said at a media briefing. 

"It will not be possible to agree on everything quickly," he added, pointing to several deeply complex issues, including territorial disputes, security guarantees, and Ukraine's potential NATO membership.

Ukrainian representatives are set to meet with allies — the United Kingdom, France, and the United States in London on Wednesday to discuss a peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said on X. 

According to the Ukrainian President, the country is not discussing any new aid packages with the US. 

"We have not yet had the opportunity to reach an agreement with the US on new aid or discuss the details," Zelenskyy said, adding however that he "would like to" meet US President Donald Trump at Pope Francis' funeral later this weekend. 

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow later this week for what will be his fourth visit to the Russian capital since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The visit was confirmed by a Kremlin aide who was fielding questions from Russian state media.

Following his previous visit to Moscow in March, Witkoff appeared to repeat Russian propaganda during a video with conservative US media personality Tucker Carlson.

Among other things, Witkoff claimed that the Ukrainians living in the partially occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – which he was unable to list – were "Russian-speaking" anyway and that the "overwhelming majority … have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule" in referenda.

He also insisted that the notion that "the Russians are gonna march across Europe" is "preposterous" and said: "I don't regard [Russian President] Putin as a bad guy."

A 69-year-old woman was killed and 24 other people were injured when two Russian guided bombs hit the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, according to the regional governor.

"One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighborhood, a residential building directly," Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram, adding that four children were among the wounded.

Images provided by Ukrainian emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man on a stretcher being tended to by medics, with bandages around his head and arms.

A further six people were reportedly injured in a Russian strike on the southern city of Kherson and another seven in the northern city of Kharkiv.

Glide bombs are large-caliber Soviet explosives that were originally designed to be dropped from airplanes but have been retrofitted with wings and motors, or attached to a drone, to turn them into deadly missiles which are difficult for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept.

Ukrainian, US and European officials are due to convene in London on Wednesday at a meeting where the "primary task," in the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will be to push for an unconditional ceasefire.

French, British and German ministers already met at a preparatory convention in Paris last Thursday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said it was important to lay out Europe's "red lines" to the United States regarding any potential peace deal in Ukraine.

"The only objective that concerns us is the defense of French interests and European security," he told French public radio broadcaster FranceInfo. "That's why, as the US decides to place itself in the mediator position, we are making them hear what our red lines are."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin's declaration of an "Easter truce" in Ukraine as "a marketing operation" designed to placate US President Donald Trump.

"The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry," Barrot told the FranceInfo broadcaster on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian armed forces claimed that Russia violated the supposed truce "more than 2,000" times throughout Easter Sunday, although President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did say that Moscow had refrained from aerial attacks with ballistic missiles or drones, and proposed an extended 30-day halt to such attacks on civilian infrastructure.

"If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, his office confirmed on Tuesday, saying Kyiv was "preparing for the visit of the President to Rome to bid farewell to the pontiff."

Pope Francis passed away on Easter Monday, aged 88, suffering a stroke after recently spending time in hospital with double pneumonia.

On Monday, Zelenskyy had paid tribute to the Argentine, hailing him as someone who "prayed for peace in Ukraine."

In 2024, two years on from the full-scale Russian invasion, Pope Francis caused great consternation in Ukraine by suggesting Kyiv should have "the courage of the white flag" and seek negotiations with Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, will not attend the funeral. Putin is subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2023 over the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories. Moscow refers to the incidents as "evacuations."

Asked whether Putin would be traveling to the Vatican, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday: "No. The president has no such plans."

Russian forces have reportedly retaken a monastery complex in Russia's Kursk region which Ukrainian troops had been using as a base.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, citing sources from security circles, Russian soldiers took over the St. Nicholas Belogorsky monastery near the village of Gornal.

A Russian military Telegram channel claimed Ukraine had stationed troops, artillery and drones at the historic site, which has reportedly been the scene of heavy fighting for the past ten days.

Both the monastery and the village are less than a kilometer (0.62 miles) from the Ukrainian border, which suggests that Russia is close to expelling the last Ukrainian troops from Russian territory they occupied in a surprise incursion last August.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had captured Sukha Balka, a small village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, close to the embattled towns of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Kostyantynivka.

At least three people were injured in a large-scale Russian drone attack on the southwestern Ukrainian city of Odesa late on Monday night, according to local authorities.

Apartments, vehicles, an educational establishment and other civil infrastructure were reportedly damaged.

Further north, six houses, four cars, three garages and three other buildings were reportedly damaged in drone attacks on the Kyiv region.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the Russian attack consisted of 54 drones, 38 of which were shot down, while the remaining 16 were disabled using electronic jamming and didn't reach their intended targets.

Russia currently has "no concrete plans" for peace talks with Ukraine, but these could potentially take place if Kyiv removes certain "obstacles," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, without specifying what those obstacles might be.

"This topic is so complex, connected with any settlement, that it is probably not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short-time frame," said Peskov.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin had suggested that Moscow would potentially be open to "bilateral" talks and would "analyze" proposals from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a 30-day halt on air strikes against civilian targets.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump had spoken of a peace deal being struck, but provided no evidence for his optimism.

Welcome to DW's coverage of developments from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday, 22 April.

Hostilities have resumed both in the air and on the front lines in Russia's Kursk region and Ukraine's Donetsk following an "Easter truce" which both sides accused one another of violating.