Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of not being serious about peace talks as they traded blame for attacks on infrastructure.
The renewed accusations on Wednesday came a day after the United States said Ukraine and Russia had agreed to halt military strikes on vessels in the Black Sea following separate negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
The Ukrainian air force said 117 drones were launched from Russia during an overnight attack. At least 56 of the drones were downed, 48 were lost due to electronic warfare and no damage was caused, it added.
However, the mayor of Mykolaiv said there were power outages due to the drones.
In the city of Kryvyi Rih, a Russian attack caused fires and damaged buildings, but no casualties were reported. Buildings were also reportedly damaged in the border region of Sumy, which has come under heavy attack in recent days.
The head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, described the drone attack as the most significant on the city, adding, “Apparently, this is how the occupiers ‘want peace’”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the overnight barrage of attacks and said it was a “clear signal to the whole world that Moscow is not going to pursue real peace”.
“Since March 11, there has been a US proposal for a total ceasefire, a complete halt to strikes. And literally every night, through its attacks, Russia keeps saying ‘no’ to our partners’ peace proposal,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Last night, there were another 117 proofs in our skies of how Russia continues to drag out this war – 117 strike drones, most of them Shaheds. A significant number were shot down by our air defenders.
Dnipro, Sumy, Cherkasy, and other regions came under Russian attack. There… pic.twitter.com/q4WTj87IHG
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defence said Ukraine carried out a drone attack on a gas storage facility on the Crimean Peninsula and a power installation in the Bryansk region, which sits on the border with Ukraine and its Sumy region.
“The Kyiv regime, while continuing to damage Russia’s civilian energy infrastructure, is actually doing everything it can to disrupt the Russian-American agreements,” it wrote.
Ukraine denied that it had targeted Russian energy infrastructure in the two regions.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said further negotiations will be “difficult” as both sides continue to trade allegations.
“Accusations back and forth illustrate how difficult and fragile the situation is between both sides in this conflict and how difficult the task the American officials have ahead of them,” Jabbari explained.
On Tuesday, the US reached separate truce agreements with Ukraine and Russia in talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. US negotiators met separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, both of which agreed to cease their attacks at sea.
The two sides also agreed “to develop measures” for implementing an agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities, the White House said.
The US also agreed to push for lifting some Western sanctions on Russian food, fertiliser and shipping in the Black Sea.
The Kremlin said “a number of conditions” must be met before the Black Sea deal can be implemented, including restoring links between some Russian banks and the international financial system.
However, a spokesperson for the European Union said on Wednesday that one of the main conditions to lift or amend Russian sanctions would be “the end of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified aggression in Ukraine and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian military forces”.
On Wednesday evening, Zelenskyy met French President Emmanuel Macron before a gathering of world leaders on Thursday that has been billed as a “coalition of the willing”, which plans to set out security guarantees for Ukraine in any peace deal.
During a press conference, Macron said it was “too early” to lift Russian sanctions.
“Ultimately, sanctions depend solely on Russia’s choice of aggression, and therefore, their lifting depends solely on Russia’s choice to comply with international law,” he said.
Macron also announced “two billion euros ($2.15bn) in extra military support to Ukraine”, adding that the support would include anti-tank missiles, surface-to-air missiles, armoured vehicles and drones.
In the meantime, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned in Warsaw on Wednesday that the Western defence alliance would respond with a “devastating” blow to any attack by Russia on Poland or another ally.
Separately on Wednesday, a court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don convicted 23 Ukrainians on “terrorism” charges in a trial that Kyiv denounced as a sham and a violation of international law.
