Ukraine-Russia war latest: Peace talks continue after Moscow strikes with another massive drone attack

Russian attacks on Wednesday killed twelve people and injured 29, local authorities said according to a tally by Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda.

Eight people were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, seven in the town of Druzhkivka in a strike on a market and apartment blocks, and one in Lyman, the governor of Donetsk, Vadym Filashkin, said.

At least 21 people were injured in those attacks.

Four people were killed and five injured in attacks on the southern Kherson region, including on the city of Kherson, and a further three people were injured in then Polohy district of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukrainian, US and Russian delegations have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, US president Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff announced in a post on X on Thursday.

“Today, delegations from the United States, Ukraine, and Russia agreed to exchange 314 prisoners—the first such exchange in five months,” he said, as the trilateral talks continued for a second day.

“This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive. While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Mr Witkoff added that discussions “will continue, with additional progress anticipated in the coming weeks”.

Ukraine’s military said on Thursday it had carried out a series of “successful” strikes at the infrastructure of a Russian intermediate-range ballistic missile launch site in January.

Ukraine’s general staff said in a statement that some buildings were damaged, one hangar was “significantly” damaged and some personnel was evacuated from the Kapustin Yar test range near the Caspian Sea. It did not provide the dates of the attacks.

The military added it used its long-range capabilities to carry out the strikes, including the Ukrainian-made Flamingo missile.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that it could neither confirm nor deny reports that French president Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomat had visited Moscow this week.

Macron’s most senior diplomat was in Moscow on Tuesday to hold talks with Russian officials, said a French source who was aware of the meeting and two diplomatic sources.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that French sources were fond of leaking to the media.

On Wednesday, Peskov confirmed that working level talks between Russia and France were under way, after the French leader said he was looking at resuming contact with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

Peskov said there was nothing to announce for now when it came to a possible conversation between Putin and Macron.

Russia has warned Ukraine that it will not stop fighting until Kyiv makes what the Kremlin considers the right “decisions” to end the conflict as the first day of peace talks between the parties ended on Wednesday.

Two-day trilateral meetings took place in Abu Dhabi and are set to continue on Thursday as US-brokered negotiations desperately seek to end the nearly four-year conflict.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner led the US delegation while Ukraine was represented by Rustem Umerov and Russia by military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

However, despite reports that the discussions were constructive, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian troops would continue to fight until Kyiv made the right “decisions”.

Read our full report after the first day of talks:

Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, speaking to reporters before the second day of peace talks began, said Moscow is actively carrying out work to restore relations with the US.

This includes work taking place within a framework of a US-Russia working group on economic relations.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent took part in the previous meeting of the working group in Miami on January 31 along with Dmitriev, US resident Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

We’ve heard from Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s peace envoy, about the ongoing peace talks in Abu Dhabi.

The first day of the talks produced progress and positive forward movements, he told reporters before officials locked into the second day of meetings.

Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy on investment who has played a central role in US-mediated negotiations on Ukraine, said that “warmongers” from Europe and Britain were “constantly trying to interfere with this process, constantly trying to meddle in it”.

“And the more such attempts there are, the more we see that progress is definitely being made,” he said. “There is positive movement forward.”

The second day of the second round of three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US are now underway.

Top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov confirmed the talks had begun in Abu Dhabi.

“We are working in the same formats as yesterday: trilateral consultations, group work and further synchronization of positions,” he said.