Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late on April 29, killing one person and setting homes on fire, the regional governor said.
"There are a number of fires in the city," Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram. "Private homes have been damaged."
Russian drones earlier on April 29 struck Kharkiv, Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said, adding that 11 people had been injured, and a 5-year-old girl experienced what he called an “acute stress reaction."
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a drone hit a private house and another one fell near a medical facility.
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Ukrainian Soldiers Skeptical Of Putin's 72-Hour Cease-Fire Offer
The governor of Russia's border Belgorod region said a Ukrainian drone slammed into a car on a highway, killing two people and injuring three. Vyacheslav Gladkov said said five people were injured in cars in three incidents in areas near the Ukrainian border.
Drones later attacked six localities in the Belgorod region, Gladkov said on Telegram. An apartment building, a house and a business were damaged, but no casualties were reported.
The governor of the neighboring Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said drones attacked the town of Rylsk, injuring three people and damaging three apartment buildings, a private house and a kindergarten.
The Kremlin earlier on April 29 rejected a call from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a 30-day cease-fire after the Ukrainian leader criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a three-day pause in fighting to coincide with annual Victory Day celebrations in Moscow.
Putin called for the 72-hour truce to take place on May 8-10 as Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Zelenskyy questioned the need to wait until then for a cease-fire, saying it was a move "just to provide Putin with silence for his parade" and called for an "immediate, full, and unconditional" 30-day truce.
"We all want this war to end in a fair way -- with no rewards for Putin, especially no land," Zelenskyy said in a videoconference at a summit organized by Poland. Moscow holds about 20 percent of Ukraine's territory after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A proposal from the United States for an unconditional cease-fire, which Ukraine had agreed to, was also still possible, Zelenskyy reiterated.
"Russia knows exactly what it needs to do and how to respond: to genuinely cease fire," he said.
Ukraine's foreign minister said earlier that the announcement by the Kremlin on April 28 was disingenuous and said it should begin immediately.
Russia's response on April 29, however, was to reject the longer "immediate" cease-fire, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying several issues first needed to be resolved.
"Without answers to these questions, it is difficult to enter into a long-term cease-fire," he said.
It's the second time this month that the Kremlin has called for a halt to fighting. A proposal for the Easter holiday earlier this month was largely ignored as Russia and Ukraine continued to batter one another.
On the night of April 28-29, Russia launched a drone attack on civilian areas in Ukraine, killing a child, according to officials.
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Child Killed In Russian Drone Strike On Residential Area In Ukraine
In his evening address on April 29, Zelenskyy again called for a full and unconditional cease-fire.
"They must take clear steps to end the war, and we insist that an unconditional and complete cease-fire must be the first step," he said.
The United States has been pressing for “a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said on April 29.
"We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict," Bruce told reporters in what she said was a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "If there is not progress, we will step back as mediators in this process," Bruce quoted Rubio as saying.
US President Donald Trump had vowed to end the war in his first 24 hours back in the White House. But the goal remains elusive as he celebrates 100 days in office.
The United States reportedly has suggested to freeze the front lines and accept the Russian control of the Crimean Peninsula that it seized in 2014. But Zelenskyy has held firm against formal international recognition of Russia's 2014 takeover of Crimea.
SEE ALSO: Study Shows Russia 'Widening Gap' With Ukraine On Military SpendingThough Trump has opened direct talks with Moscow, Russian officials have sought to broaden the negotiations to include not just the Ukraine conflict, but the wider bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine agreed on a limited cease-fire in March, but the two sides have continued to attack one another. On the battlefield, Russian forces have pressed their advantage -- in men and in weaponry -- to grind down Ukraine's troops.
Over the weekend on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican, Trump had his first face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy since February, when Oval Office talks imploded in acrimony.
Trump said the meeting had gone well, but he added that he thought Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea Peninsula to Russia as a concession.
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'Crimea Is Ukraine': Kyiv Residents React To Possible US Recognition Of Russian Claim
Trump later called on Putin to "stop shooting" and agree to a peace deal.
Experts say Putin has been dragging out talks because his forces have the momentum on the battlefield and a cease-fire at the current line of contact would leave him short of one of his main goals: fully capturing the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson.
They add that ceding territory to Russia would be politically and constitutionally impossible for Zelenskyy. Ukrainian citizens and lawmakers appear strongly opposed to the idea.
Russia wants any peace deal to recognize its control of nearly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea. It also wants Ukraine to be de-militarized and kept out of NATO. Moscow has also rejected Kyiv's demand for a Western peacekeeping force to monitor any cease-fire agreement.
US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat-New Hampshire), said on April 29 that recognizing "Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea would invite additional aggression from Moscow and Beijing."
"I have endeavored to give President Trump the space to negotiate a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, which is a goal we both share," said Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"However, President Trump and his team have fatally mismanaged these negotiations -- offering concession after concession to Russia, throwing away our leverage and fracturing the united front with our allies that is critical to ending this war," she said.