Russia, Ukraine Pound Each Other With Drones, As US Envoy Meets With Putin

Russia and Ukraine pounded each other with drones, with Moscow complaining that Kyiv had targeted its energy facilities in violation of a tenuous cease-fire agreement that has yet to take hold.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had launched more than eight dozen drones overnight on April 12, with most of them either shot down or intercepted with electronic jamming.

At least one district in the capital, Kyiv, was damaged by drones, or debris from downed drones, Mayor Vitali Klitshcko said. At least three people were reported wounded.

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said that more than 150 Ukrainian drones had been launched, including at five energy facilities.

On March 11, Ukraine and the United States announced a breakthrough agreement paving the way for a 30-day cease-fire contingent on Russia's signing on.

A major foreign policy priority for US President Donald Trump, it was the first concrete proposal on the negotiating table since the early weeks after Russia's all-out assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin balked, saying he agreed in principle but there were "nuances" that would have to be addressed and attaching conditions including a halt to Western supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

Late on April 12, Trump told reporters the peace talks "might be going OK" but that there is "a point at which you just have to either put up or shut up, and we'll see what happens, but I think it’s going fine."

Despite the cease-fire announcement, the two sides have continued to fire drones at one another.

Ukraine also announced that an F-16 fighter jet pilot had been killed in action, the second such combat death involving the US-made planes.

The military gave no details as to the 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov's death. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his condolences to his family and said details of the incident were under investigation.

Ukraine has small flotilla of F-16s that it started receiving in 2024. In August 2024, Ukrainian officials said an F-16 had crashed while repelling a Russian missile attack, killing its pilot.

Speaking to a Senate committee last week, US Army General Christopher Cavoli said Ukrainian F-16s were flying daily as part of both defensive and offensive missions.

The United States, meanwhile, continues to engage in direct talks with Russian officials, as part of a wider deal aimed at rebuilding bilateral relations. White House envoy Steve Witkoff flew to St. Petersburg, Russia, to meet with President Vladimir Putin for more than four hours of talks on April 12.

Neither Witkoff nor the White House issued any public comment after the meeting, though the Kremlin said “aspects of a Ukrainian settlement” had been discussed.

Trump has signaled impatience with the pace of talks to cement a cease-fire in Ukraine. Hours after Witkoff landed in St. Petersburg, Trump posted a message on his social media account, calling the war "senseless" and said it "should have never happened."

"Russia has to get moving. Too many people are DYING,” he wrote.

The White House’s envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, suggested that British and French troops could adopt zones of control in Ukraine.

Speaking in an interview published on April 12 with The Times of London newspaper, Kellogg suggested they could have areas of responsibility west of the Dnieper River, as part of a "reassurance force", with a demilitarized zone separating them from Russian-occupied areas in the east.

"You could almost make it look like what happened with Berlin after World War II, when you had a Russian zone, a French zone, and a British zone, a US zone," he said.

Kellogg later posted a message to X, saying his comments had been misconstrued.

In his interview, Kellogg also said relations between Ukraine and the United States were now "back on track,” and he pointed to a proposed deal on Ukraine's mineral resources.

However, Reuters cited unnamed officials as describing a meeting between US and Ukrainian officials about the mineral deal as "antagonistic.”

The strains were due to the fact that the newest draft proposal is more expansive than the original version.

The latest draft, according to Reuters and The New York Times, would give the United States privileged access to Ukraine's mineral deposits and require Kyiv to place all income from the exploitation of natural resources -- by both Ukrainian state and private firms -- into a joint investment fund.

Trump has said he viewed access to Ukraine's rare and valuable minerals as a way to recoup billions of dollars in US military aid to Kyiv.