A Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian coastal city of Odesa has killed one person and injured at least 13 others -- including three rescue workers -- as the capital, Kyiv, continues to reel from deadly air strikes earlier this week that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “reminder” that Russia “chooses to kill.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 86 drones in the June 20 barrage on Odesa, a UNESCO heritage site, with 70 being intercepted by air defense systems.
Zelenskyy said the latest attacks are "tactics of deliberate terror against our people."
"And it is precisely for this that it must face a strong response – one that will significantly impact Russia as a whole and its ability to continue the war," he added in a social media post.
The Odesa strikes follow a massive attack on Kyiv three days earlier that killed 28 civilians as each side steps up strikes with peace talks making little progress.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had eliminated at least 61 Ukrainian drones launched at targets in Russia, including Moscow, early on June 20.
Zelenskyy’s statement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he is ready "to find a solution" to his war on Ukraine and to potentially meet with the Ukrainian president.
However, in his remarks at a meeting with representatives of international news agencies on the sidelines of an economic forum in St. Petersburg on June 18, Putin again repeated some of his maximalist positions in comments to foreign media, giving no sign that he is prepared to make substantial concessions.
"We need to find a solution that would not only put an end to the current conflict but also create conditions that would prevent similar situations from recurring in the long term," Putin said.
The remark echoed his repeated statements that any peace deal must address what he calls the "root causes" of the war -- wording he uses to question Ukraine’s right to exist, to choose its security partners, and to maintain a strong military.
Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 -- the first direct peace talks since the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022. While the negotiations led to agreements on prisoner swaps and the exchange of fallen soldiers' bodies, they brought no progress toward a cease-fire -- let alone a broader peace deal.
On June 20, the latest prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine brought an unspecified number of captives home for the second day in a row.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the recently returned Ukrainian soldiers had fought across the front lines — including in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Mariupol — areas fiercely contested in the early months of the invasion.
"Most of the warriors returning today from Russian captivity had been held for over two years. And now, at last, they are home," Zelenskyy added.
Putin said talks could resume at some point after June 22, a date he has previously suggested for a major new swap of prisoners and the bodies of the dead.
The West has slapped sanctions on Russia while NATO has beefed up its forces on its eastern flank since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Rights groups have alleged major rights violations and war crimes committed by Russian forces during their military operations.
Western allies have also widely criticized Putin for his refusal to agree to cease-fire terms put forward by US President Donald Trump.
On June 19, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha noted that 100 days have passed since Kyiv accepted Trump's proposal for an unconditional, extendable 30-day cease-fire.
