Russia launches nearly 150 drones against Ukraine; Trump officials push peace deal

Attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over remaining parts of the Kursk region that Ukraine had seized in August

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A Russian Army 152mm howitzer Giatsint-B fires towards Ukrainian positions in Kherson, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP

Published: 8:22pm, 27 Apr 2025Updated: 6:53am, 28 Apr 2025

Russia launched a sweeping drone assault and air strikes across Ukraine early Sunday, killing at least four people, officials said, after US President Donald Trump cast doubt over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to end the war.

Three people died and four were wounded in strikes on Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the regional prosecutor’s office said. Another person died and a 14-year-old girl was wounded in a drone attack on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which was hit for the third consecutive night, Governor Serhii Lysak said.

The attacks came hours after Russia claimed to have regained control over the remaining parts of the Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise incursion in August. Ukrainian officials said the fighting in Kursk was continuing.

The attacks came as top officials in Trump’s administration on Sunday pressed Russia and Ukraine to make headway on a peace deal following a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican a day earlier.

“It needs to happen soon,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s Meet the Press. “We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition.”

Rubio said the coming week would be “very critical”, and that the US would need to “make a determination about whether this is an endeavour that we want to continue to be involved in”.