Russia and Ukraine trade deadly strikes as Zelenskyy prepares to meet Trump

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded at least four Ukrainian regions overnight with missiles and drones, killing five people, officials said Tuesday, and Ukraine’s forces damaged another Russian oil refinery in their latest long-range strike.

The ongoing exchange of daily aerial attacks, while positions on the battlefield’s front line barely change, provided a backdrop to the visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States.

Zelenskyy was due to meet other world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. The Ukrainian leader is hoping to recruit their help to end Russia’s more than 4 1/2-year-old full-scale invasion of his country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t due to attend the annual event.

The war, which Western officials say has killed more than 500,000 Russian troops, has had global repercussions.

The repeated attacks on Russian refineries, following Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine’s power grid, have caused international shortages of diesel and price spikes, according to Trump. However, the global crunch also came after the Iran war led to curtailed oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Zelenskyy also wants help to ensure the flow of Ukrainian grain and other farm products to world markets through the Black Sea. Russian attacks on cargo vessels have severely disrupted Kyiv’s exports, hurting its economy and threatening global supplies.

Russia and Ukraine have in recent years accounted for around 30% of the world’s wheat exports and 12% of corn exports, most of it shipped through the Black Sea. But last month, attacks slashed both countries’ agricultural exports by two-thirds, Thomas de Waal of the Brussels-based think tank Carnegie Europe said in a report Tuesday.

“The lack of that grain in world markets puts several African countries at risk of famine, while world cereal prices, already pushed up by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, could rise even higher,” it said.

Zelenskyy takes de-escalation proposals to New York

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that his country would provide Ukraine with more radars to help protect its power grid.

He said on social media that he discussed with Trump the possibility of a truce between Moscow and Kyiv on strikes on energy infrastructure and a “moratorium” on Black Sea attacks.

Zelenskyy began his New York visit by meeting with U.S. senators, thanking them for what he called strong bipartisan support for Ukraine and for recently passing a tougher Russian sanctions bill that Trump has signed into law.

Peace and security will be closer once the bill is fully implemented, he said.

Zelenskyy said on social media that he briefed senators on his proposals for de-escalation measures that he intends to discuss with Trump later Tuesday.

In Kyiv, Iryna Panina, 36, woke around 2 a.m. Tuesday as a jet-powered Russian drone approached her home. It blew out a window and left her apartment covered in wreckage.

She said she has lost hope in leaders’ peace efforts.

“As an ordinary person just trying to live and survive each day, I find it hard to believe they fully understand what’s actually happening, how hard it is, and how much ordinary people are suffering,” she told The Associated Press.

Zelenskyy also plans to again press Trump to send more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv desperately needs to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles.

Ukrainian special forces say they hit a Russian refinery

Ukraine said that it struck the Kuibyshev oil refinery in Samara, southeast of Moscow, in an overnight attack.

Several drones hit their targets, sparking a large fire at the facility, according to a statement from Ukrainian special forces.

The refinery, owned by Rosneft, is a key fuel supplier for central Russia, producing gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and other petroleum products, the statement said. Ukraine said that it struck the same refinery last June.

One person was killed and four others were wounded in the Samara attack, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. He said that “the enemy targeted industrial facilities,” but didn’t specify which ones.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday said that its forces downed 297 Ukrainian drones over 14 Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Russia says it struck missile plant and ammunition factory

Russia’s overnight attack on Ukraine included anti-ship missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and more than 200 drones, Ukraine’s air force said.

The strikes killed four people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration. A drone also killed a woman in the northern Sumy region, local police said.

The strikes across Ukrainian regions damaged homes, businesses and storage facilities, wounding at least five people, authorities said. Five people were wounded in the capital, Kyiv, according to officials.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that its forces struck metallurgical and chemical industries, the fuel and energy sector, and the military-industrial complex, as well as port infrastructure facilities in four regions of Ukraine.

They included a Fire Point plant in Kyiv producing components for long-range cruise missiles and a tobacco factory in the central Poltava region used to make small arms ammunition, it said.

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Barry Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. AP reporters Volodymr Yurchuk and Srdjan Nedeljkovic in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Hanna Arhirova And Barry Hatton, The Associated Press