Russian assaults in Ukraine wound 24 earlier than deliberate direct peace talks

Russian forces struck three Ukrainian cities in in a single day assaults, killing a toddler and wounding at the least 24 individuals, officers stated Tuesday (July 22, 2025), a day earlier than a deliberate third spherical of direct peace talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s announcement late Monday that the negotiations would happen generated little hope that they might ship any progress on ending the three-year warfare.

That is regardless of the Trump administration’s efforts to push ahead peace efforts, which have stalled as Russian President Vladimir Putin is reluctant to budge from his calls for.

The earlier two rounds have been held in Istanbul, and Russian media stories stated the Turkish metropolis probably would additionally host the assembly this time. The talks in May and June led to a collection of exchanges of prisoners of warfare and the our bodies of fallen troopers however produced no different agreements.

The warfare has continued unabated, in the meantime. Russia is driving exhausting to interrupt by way of at jap and northeastern factors on the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) entrance line. It can also be firing upwards of 700 drones an evening at Ukrainian cities.

From nightfall on Monday night, Russia struck the Ukrainian areas of Sumy within the northeast, Odesa within the south and jap Kramatorsk.

In Kramatorsk, a glide bomb hit an condo constructing, beginning a hearth, based on the top of town’s army administration, Oleksandr Honcharenko. A boy born in 2015 was killed, native officers stated, with out giving his actual age. Five different individuals have been reported wounded.

The Sumy area got here underneath a number of waves of assaults, the regional army administration reported. A drone hit a gasoline station within the city of Putyvl, wounding 4 individuals, together with a 5-year-old boy, it stated. A second drone strike hit the identical location lower than two hours later, wounding seven extra.

After darkish, two highly effective Russian glide bombs have been dropped on Sumy metropolis, wounding 13 individuals, together with a 6-year-old boy. According to regional authorities, 5 condo buildings, two personal properties and a shopping center have been broken within the assault. Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar stated the blasts shattered home windows and destroyed balconies in residential buildings.

Also Tuesday, Russia’s Defence Ministry stated air defences downed 35 Ukrainian long-range drones over a number of areas in a single day, together with three over the Moscow area.