Kyiv continues campaign of attacks on Russia-linked maritime targets; latest US idea is three-way peace talks. What we know on day 1,397

Ukrainian drones hit an oil rig at Russia’s Filanovsky field in the Caspian Sea – more than 700km (435 miles) from Ukraine’s nearest border, as well as the military patrol ship Okhotnik and other facilities, Ukraine’s military general staff said in a statement on Saturday. It said the ship was patrolling near the platform. The extent of the damage was being assessed. The attack continues Kyiv’s recent campaign of strikes on Russia-linked maritime targets far from Ukrainian territory.

Ukrainian drones struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed two Russian fighter jets were also destroyed at an airfield in occupied Crimea.

Since Thursday, Russian forces have at least five times hit a bridge on the Dniester River near the village of Mayaky, south-west of Pivdennyi in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to the deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba. The bridge, which connects parts of the region divided by the river and sea inlets, is the main transport route westward to border crossings with Moldova, and is not operational now. The route accounted for about 40% of fuel supplies to Ukraine, Kuleba said. Ukrainian authorities have set up a pontoon bridge and re-routed logistics through other regions, securing civilian and freight logistics.

The death toll rose to eight from a Russian strike on Pivdennyi port. Geneva-based vegetable oil producer Allseeds said three tanks storing sunflower oil at the site were set ablaze in Pivdennyi, and one of its workers was killed while two were injured.

The Ukrainian military said its forces on Saturday fought back more than 60 attacks on Pokrovsk, which is under heavy Russian siege. Across the combat zones in Ukraine, “the Russian invaders carried out 42 airstrikes, dropping 101 guided bombs. In addition, they used 1,684 kamikaze drones and carried out 2,467 attacks on our military positions and settlements.” In the Kharkiv region city of Izium, two people were killed by guided bomb strikes, said the state emergency service.

Russia reported Ukrainian drone attacks on its Belgorod region as well as an attack on facilities in the Kursk region that left about 5,000 people without electricity.

The White House offered to chair face-to-face talks between officials of the US, Russia and Ukraine, as the Trump administration continued to cast about for a peace deal. “America is now proposing a trilateral meeting with national security advisers – America, Ukraine, Russia,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine would back the proposal, he said, if it facilitated more exchanges of prisoners and paved the way for meetings of national leaders.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine stood for proposals that would leave the frontline where it is without Ukraine having to give up territory it still controls in the industrial region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. “For me, the fair version is we stand where we are now standing,” he said. US negotiators met Russian officials in Florida on Saturday, following on from US talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials. It was suggested the talks would continue on Sunday.