Russia launches drone barrage on Odesa as diplomacy stalls; 23 hurt

KYIV: A heavy Russian drone bombardment of Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa injured 23 people, including two children and a pregnant woman, officials said on Tuesday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for US efforts to end Russia’s almost 4-year-old invasion of his country to move faster.

The Odesa attack involved more than 50 drones, some of them models recently upgraded by Russia to improve their range and strike power, according to Ukrainian authorities. The drones targeted the power grid, which Russia has repeatedly bombarded during the coldest winter in years, and also hit five apartment blocks, officials said.

“The rescue operation will continue until the fate of all people who may be under the rubble is clarified,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that an informal Protestant place of worship was also damaged.

“Each such Russian strike undermines diplomacy, which is still ongoing, and hits, in particular, the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he said.

A diplomatic push by the Trump administration to end the war has made progress, according to officials, but has delivered no breakthrough on the key issue of what happens to Russian-occupied Ukrainian land and other territory that Moscow is demanding.

Analysts say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no rush to find a settlement, despite his army’s difficulties on the roughly 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) front line. He believes that time is on his side, that Western support for Kyiv will fade and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually break under pressure, according to analysts. To replenish its forces and keep up the pressure on Kyiv, Moscow is offering cash bonuses, freeing convicts from prison, and luring foreigners to its army. An Associated Press investigation found that unwitting Bangladeshi workers were enticed to Russia under the false promise of civilian work before being thrown into combat in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Monday the next round of talks with the United States and Russia is pencilled in for Feb. 1, but that “it would be good if this meeting could be accelerated.”

He also urged that, in the meantime, additional sanctions be imposed on Russia to compel the Kremlin to make compromises.