Eight dead, 27 wounded in Russian strike on Odesa port as diplomacy intensifies
Casualties reported as diplomacy broadens, with U.S.-led talks in Berlin and planned meetings in Florida and Miami among efforts to end the war
A Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa in southern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded 27, Ukrainian emergency services said Saturday, as a Kremlin envoy prepared to travel to Florida for talks on a U.S.-proposed plan to end the nearly four-year war.
Some of those wounded were on a bus at the center of the strike, the emergency service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the port’s parking lot, and cars were damaged. The port was struck with ballistic missiles, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa region. Moscow did not immediately acknowledge the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that over the previous day it had struck unspecified transport and storage infrastructure used by the Ukrainian armed forces, along with energy facilities and those supplying Kyiv’s war effort.
In other actions, Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil rig, the military patrol ship Okhotnik, and other facilities. The Okhotnik was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field, operated by Lukoil, was also hit. The Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government or Lukoil. Lukoil is one of two Russian oil majors targeted by recent U.S. sanctions aimed at depriving Moscow of revenue that supports the war. Kyiv has argued that long-range strikes against Russian oil infrastructure undermine Moscow’s war effort, and Ukraine has continued those strikes as the conflict enters its fifth year.
Across the Atlantic, the United States has stepped up a diplomatic push to end the war. Washington has pursued a peace track that includes talks with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, with a broader push in Berlin that included meetings with Ukrainian and European partners. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said late Friday that his delegation had held separate meetings in the United States with American and European partners and that they planned to continue joint work in the near future. A Kremlin spokesman said Moscow was preparing for contacts with the United States to learn the results of those Berlin discussions, but provided no details.
Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev is expected to meet with Trump administration figures in Miami, including Steve Witkoff, a Trump envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Dmitriev would discuss security guarantees for Kyiv and other aspects of the U.S.-authored plan after meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin.
In Europe, leaders agreed to provide about 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet military and economic needs for the next two years, borrowing on capital markets rather than using frozen Russian assets. The International Monetary Fund estimates Ukraine will need 137 billion euros ($161 billion) in 2026 and 2027. Kyiv’s government is under significant strain and faces the risk of bankruptcy, with officials seeking the funding by spring.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in Kyiv with Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, said much would depend on the United States’ posture after consultations with Russia. Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine and Portugal had signed an agreement to establish joint production of maritime drones, emphasizing defense cooperation as a practical step toward improving European capabilities to counter threats. Zelenskyy also said that the response from the United States after those consultations would shape subsequent actions.
The war, which has dragged on for almost four years, continues to unfold with a mix of battlefield setbacks and strategic moves on the diplomatic front. The latest strikes in Ukraine and the ongoing international negotiations underscore the global effort to chart a way toward a settlement, even as fighting persists in multiple theaters.