Ukraine updates: Russian drones hit Kharkiv, Odesa regions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday welcomed US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal to Kyiv, beseeching both to seek more painful US sanctions on Russia in an effort to force President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

Graham, a Republican, and Blumenthal, a Democrat, are both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and traveled to Ukraine to discuss the war, as well as expanding US-Ukraine trade relations.

Graham and Blumenthal assured Zelenskyy that they were set to introduce a new Russia sanctions bill in the Senate next week, telling him that it has broad bipartisan support.

Speaking of Russian attacks as Putin continues to reject peace talks, Zelenskyy said additional sanctions pressure was needed for progress to take place, "It is the United States' real involvement at every stage of the negotiations that can guarantee a reliable peace."

"I'm grateful for the initiative… the bipartisan sanctions bill already supported by 82 senators," Zelenskyy wrote X. "We discussed this and other levers we can use to force Russia into peace. We will keep working on this together, the post continued."

Zelenskyy, who has accused Putin of mocking the US-led peace effort and using duplicitous diplomatic overtures to buy time for a new military offensive, thanked the US politicians for their support.

Graham accused Putin of acting out a "Russian charade." He added: "The game that Putin has been playing is about to change. He is going to be hit, and hit hard by the United States, when it comes to sanctions." 
 

Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev expressed satisfaction with Berlin's change in tone after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit this week.

"There were clear results," Oleksii Makeiev told public radio station WDR5, referring to Wednesday's meeting between Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"And on a personal level, it went very well," he said. "We are experiencing a new tone: more direct, clearer, more committed."

During the meeting, Merz promised Zelensky that Germany would support Ukraine in producing long-range missiles.

However, Germany still does not plan to supply Kyiv with its much-discussed Taurus cruise missiles, and there will be no further public discussion on the matter, according to Merz.

Previous German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had ruled out providing Taurus missiles to Ukraine due to the risk of escalation and concern it would drag Germany directly into the war.  

If you want to read more about Germany's domestic and foreign politics, please go to our blog here.

Following accusations by Moscow that Belgrade is exporting arms to the Ukrainian government, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that Serbia and Russia will collaborate to investigate how Serbia-made ammunition reached Ukraine.

On Thursday, the SVR (the Russian foreign intelligence service) accused Belgrade of "a stab in the back," alleging that Serbia's defense manufacturers were selling ammunition and weapons to Ukraine.

Vucic told state-run RTS TV that he had discussed Serbian arms exports to Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow on May 9. He also denied some of the SVR's allegations.

"We have formed a working group with Russian partners to establish the facts," he said. Some of the things that have been said are not true," he told RTS late Thursday.

The SVR claims that Serbia sends arms shipments to Ukraine via NATO intermediaries, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, and some African countries.

According to a classified Pentagon document, despite its professed military neutrality, Serbia agreed to supply arms to Ukraine in 2023. Moscow has criticized the Serbian government several times over this issue.

Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, said that Russia's concern over NATO's eastward expansion was fair and that the United States does not want Ukraine to join the military alliance.

When asked by US network ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge that NATO would not expand eastward to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said, "It's a fair concern."

"We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that," he told ABC late on Thursday. "That's one of the issues that Russia wil bring up."

"They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova," Kellogg said, adding that a decision on US views of NATO enlargement was for Trump to make.

Kellogg said that the peace talks would begin with an attempt to merge the two memorandums drafted by Ukraine and Russia into a single document

He also added that national security advisers from Germany, France, and Britain would join the United States in discussing the memorandum, with talks set to begin in Turkey on Monday.

While on the visit to Kyiv, Turkey's Fidan said that Turkey hopes Russia and Ukraine will largely finish addressing technical issues at their next potential talks in Istanbul on Monday.

He added that Ankara wants to host a leaders' summit afterwards, with the Turkish and US presidents in attendance.

"We sincerely think that it is possible to cap the first and second direct Istanbul talks with a meeting between Mr. (Donald) Trump, Mr. (Vladimir) Putin and M. (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, under the direction of Mr. (Recep Tayyip Erdogan)," Fidan said.

However, during a press conference with Fidan, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha did not disclose whether Ukraine would participate in the Istanbul talks on Monday.

He stated that Ukraine had not yet received the expected memorandum from Russian negotiators containing their proposals for the upcoming negotiations.

Ahead of a potential second round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul next week, Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that both sides wanted a ceasefire.

"I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start. Both parties want a ceasefire. No one says they don't want it," Fidan said on a train to Kyiv, according to the Anadolu news agency. 

Fidan arrived in Kyiv on Friday and met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. He also visited a memorial for fallen soldiers and was expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later in the day.

Earlier this week, Fidan held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Ukraine has not yet confirmed whether it will send a delegation to the talks proposed by Russia for Monday.

Several people, including two teenagers, were injured in a massive Russian drone attack overnight on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region.

According to Governor Oleh Syniehubov, eight people, including two 16-year-olds, were injured in an attack in the village of Vasyliv Khutir.

The main city of the Kharkiv region also came under Russian drone attack, which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

"Today, Kharkiv suffered another attack: the enemy fired 8 'shaheds' at one of the depots where our trolleybuses were being repaired and maintained," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that one trolleybus was completely destroyed and 18 others were damaged to varying degrees. More than 30 nearby apartment buildings also sustained damage.

In the southern Odesa region, meanwhile, the Russian attack hit the town of Izmail, Ukraine's biggest port on the Danube River. The port is important for critical imports and lies across the river from Romania.

A delivery service branch was destroyed in the drone attack, said regional Governor Oleh Kiper. He reported no casualties.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles against Ukraine overnight that targeted the Kharkiv, Odesa, and Donetsk regions.

As the two countries prepare for the possible next round of talks in Turkey, Russia keeps attacking Ukraine with drones and missiles and pushing on the frontlines.

DW will provide the latest news, analysis, and insights from our reporters and correspondents regarding Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.