Ukraine and Russia exchanged large cross-border drone strikes overnight into Wednesday, ahead of the second day of trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia peace talks taking place in Abu Dhabi.
A significant Ukrainian drone attack was reported on the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga — a key hub for Russian energy and commodity exports located close to the second largest city of St. Petersburg.
Aleksandr Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region in which Ust-Luga is located, said in a post to Telegram that 150 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region overnight. “The target of the attack was the port area of Ust-Luga,” he wrote.
“As a result of several drones hitting the area, a fire broke out, and three workers were injured. Their lives are not in danger,” Drozdenko said.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to Telegram, “Something is burning in the area near the port of Ust-Luga, near St. Petersburg.”
The drones reported intercepted over Leningrad were among at least 627 craft downed by Russian forces overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said in a statement. Ukrainian craft were shot down over 22 regions — including Moscow — occupied Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.
Two people were killed in a drone attack in the western Russian region of Smolensk, the local governor said. One person was also wounded by a drone attack in the border region of Belgorod, local officials said.
Authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all issued warnings of potential drone incursions amid the overnight attacks, though did not specify the suspected origin of the craft. Ukrainian drones have previously strayed into all three countries on route to striking Russian targets.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, issued temporary flight restrictions at more than 20 airports across the country amid the latest attacks. Among those put under restrictions included Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg and two of Moscow’s four international airports — Vnukovo and Domodedovo.
Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said Russia launched 163 drones, of which 91 were jet-powered, into the country overnight, along with an unspecified number of Х-59/69 air-to-ground missiles and Banderol cruise missiles. Defenders intercepted or suppressed 130 drones, of which 72 were jet-powered, and 14 Bandrol missiles, the air force said.
Impacts were reported across 17 locations, the air force added.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post to Telegram that at least one person was injured in an attack on the capital. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that Russian attacks also injured six people in the Zaporizhzhia region, one person in Kharkiv and five people in Zhytomyr.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi, meanwhile, said in a statement that Russian attacks again targeted critical energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine. Among those hit were six “large power substations” in Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy, he said.
The latest strikes come as American, Russian and Ukrainian peace talks delegations were gathered in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for the first round of trilateral talks since February.
Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and the leader of the Ukrainian delegation, said in a post to Telegram on Wednesday morning that the second day of talks had begun.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are leading the U.S. delegation.
After Tuesday’s talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the meetings as “constructive and quite substantive.”
In a post to X, Zelenskyy said negotiators spoke about potential humanitarian measures, prisoner of war exchanges, de-escalatory steps and future security guarantees for Ukraine — guarantees Kyiv says are essential to preventing another future round of Russian aggression.
“Real tools are needed to block any recurrence of the war,” Zelenskyy wrote. Earlier on Tuesday while on a visit to Denmark, Zelenskyy suggested to the country’s national broadcaster that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not genuine in his professed desire for a deal.
“If Putin doesn’t want a ceasefire and says, ‘No, I want a long plan, with different questions, both difficult, sensitive, and not. And then, when we sign this long plan, we will stop the war,’ it simply means he doesn’t want to stop the war,” Zelensky said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow will not disclose any details of the Abu Dhabi talks until they conclude on Wednesday and the delegation has made its report to Putin.
European representatives from France, the U.K., Germany and Italy are also present in Abu Dhabi. On Tuesday, Witkoff issued a joint statement with Ukraine and its European partners saying that “any future arrangements must respect sovereignty, territorial integrity, independent decision-making and provide credible security guarantees for Ukraine.”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
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