Putin, Witkoff discuss possible direct Russia-Ukraine talks

US President Donald Trump has once again promised that Moscow and Kyiv were "very close" to a US-sponsored deal, a goal that has thus far eluded his administration since his inauguration in January.

"A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to 'finish it off.'"

The US president added that most of the major points had been agreed on.

Following talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff earlier in Moscow, the Kremlin said the pair discussed the possibility of "direct" talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Vowing to help facilitate an end to the war, Trump also wrote: "Stop the bloodshed, NOW."

On Thursday, Trump issued a rare rebuke for Putin, calling on him to "STOP!" after Russian overnight strikes on Kyiv that killed 12 people and injured 87 others.

US President Donald Trump on Friday posted a statement to his social media platform Truth Social hammering Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not yet signing a controversial mineral deal with the US, claiming, "it is at least three weeks late."

Trump, who has been pressuring Ukraine to grant the US access to critical rare earths for having helped Kyiv defend itself against an ongoing Russian invasion, wrote, "Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important rare earths deal with the United States."

The statement was posted as Trump traveled to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, which will take place on Saturday.

Although both Washington and Kyiv signed a memorandum of understanding last week for a final agreement to be signed on April 26, the deal has yet to be inked.

Trump has been trying to strong arm Zelenskyy into signing the deal as repayment for past assistance as well as claiming that Ukraine's best bet for future US security assistance would be to give the US access to the highly valuable raw materials, which are absolutely key to high-tech industries.

The White House has repeatedly claimed that a deal was imminent, despite Ukraine's reservations. 

The most vivid illustration of just how touchy negotiations on the deal are came in late February when Zelenskyy was very publicly dressed down by Trump and US Vice President JD Vance during an Oval Office press conference that ended with Zelenskyy being ordered to leave for not acquiescing to US demands.    

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyyon Friday reiterated that Crimea "belongs" to Ukraine, saying his "position [remains] unchanged."

In an interview published by Time Magazine on Friday, US President Donald Trump said, "Crimea will stay with Russia."

"Everybody understands that it's been with them for a long time," the president said. "It's been with them long before Trump came along."

Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, met President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow, trying to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

According to texts seen by the Reuters news agency, a peace proposal Witkoff presented calls for formal US recognition of Russia's control over Crimea.

But Zelenskyy said he can not decide on the future status of the peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.

"Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian. The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories... belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people," Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said that important "military meetings" may keep him from being able to attend the funeral of Pope Francis.

"If I am not (there) in time, Ukraine will be represented at a proper level. The foreign minister and the first lady will be there. As for me, it was important for me to be here. There are several military meetings in Ukraine today."

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy cut short a visit to South Africa as Russia launched massive attacks on his country despite US efforts to force both sides to enter a ceasefire. 

Numerous world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres are expected to attend Francis' funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. 

Two civilians have been killed and another was critically injured after a Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia's Belgorod region, district Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

Gladkov said the passenger car was attacked by "an enemy drone" on Friday and two men died on the spot before the ambulance crew arrived.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met on Friday for a three-hour meeting where the pair discussed the possibility of "direct" talks between Russia and Ukraine.

"There was a three-hour conversation that was constructive and very useful," Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters. The "possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine" was discussed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a missile fired by Russia on Kyiv on Thursday was supplied by North Korea and contained dozens of components from US firms.

"The missile that killed civilians in Kyiv contained at least 116 components sourced from other countries -- and most of them, unfortunately, were manufactured by American companies," Zelensky said Friday on X.

The Ukrainian leader called for more "pressure" and sanctions on both Moscow and Pyongyang.

"The lack of sufficient pressure on Russia allows them to import such missiles and other weapons – and to use them here, in Europe," he said.

"The lack of sufficient pressure on North Korea and its accomplices enables, in particular, the production of such ballistic missiles." 

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow, where he is meeting Vladimir Putin two weeks after his last talks with the Russian president. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax that Putin was receiving Witkoff.

"Good to see you," Witkoff said to Putin as they met.

Ahead of the meeting with the Russian president, Witkoff met with Putin's economic cooperation envoy, Kirill Dmitriev.

Dmitriev was present for the talks between Putin and Witkoff, as was Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.

Putin and Witkoff are expected to continue talks on a possible peace arrangement, more than three years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

It comes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said parts of a possible deal to end the war still need to be "fine-tuned."

"There are still some specific points — elements — of this deal which need to be fine-tuned and we are busy with this exact process," Lavrov told US broadcaster CBS on Thursday evening.

"There are several signs that we are moving in the right direction," Lavrov said, adding that Russia is "ready to reach a deal."

Friday's meeting in Moscow came after a combined Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Russian authorities have confirmed the death of a senior Russian officer when a parked car exploded near Moscow.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes said, said it had launched a murder probe.

Authorities named the victim as General-lieutenant Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military's General Staff.

The news had been reported earlier by several news outlets.

Investigators have launched a probe into murder and smuggling explosives after the Volkswagen Golf exploded outside a block of flats in the town of Balashikha in the eastern Moscow region.

Images on social media showed a fire that gutted a car.

The Agentstvo investigative news site said Moskalik lived in Balashikha, but the Volkswagen was not registered to him.

The "blast was caused by the triggering of an improvised explosive device" packed with fragments of metal aimed at causing maximum harm," investigators said.

The Kremlin's website says Moskalik was a Russian military representative at the "Normandy format" talks on Ukraine in 2015 as the conflict was raging between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists.

He was made a general lieutenant by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2021.
 

Two people were killed in an attack on Friday morning on the village of Yarova in eastern Ukriane, after an overnight Russian drone strike, said prosecutors in Ukraine's Donetsk region. 

"At 05:10, enemy forces conducted two airstrikes on the village of Yarova in the Lyman [county]. As a result of a direct strike on a residential building at their place of residence, a 61-year-old man and his 88-year-old father sustained fatal injuries," wrote Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office. 

About 10 residential buildings, an outbuilding and a shop were damaged in the village, it added.

A large portion of the Donetsk region is under occupation by Russian forces.

Latvia's planned building of a defensive line along its border with Russia and Belarusis on course for completion by 2028, the country's Defense Minister Andris Spruds has said.

"The work is proceeding according to plan," Spruds said on Friday while visiting a storage site near the town of Zilupe, close to the frontier with Russia.

The site holds concrete blocks and tank barriers to be erected for the fortification and securing of Latvia's eastern border. 

Latvia's efforts are part of a wide one to create the Baltic defense line also protecting fellow Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania from potential attacks from Russia and Belarus. Belarus is a major Russian ally and was used as a staging post by some of the Russian military to launch Moscow's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"The main goal is to stop, distract and destroy a potential intruder," Spruds stressed. 

Additional tank trenches, ammunition depots and mine storage facilities are also to be built. 

In some sections of the roughly 440-kilometer-long (about 170-mile) border with Russia and Belarus, the construction is already complete.

Latvia's government last year decided to invest some €300 million ($340 million) in strengthening the border and building the line in line with NATO defense plans.

Latvian army chief Kaspars Pudans said the Baltic States have been guided by the lessons of the war in Ukraine in building the defensive barrier. 

Russian media sites have reported that a high-ranking Russian military officer has been killed after a car explosion in the town of Balashikha in the Moscow region.

Media outlets Mash and Baza named the officer as Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Authorities gave no initial confirmation about what happened or the identity of the individual targeted.

Baza, which has sources inside Russian law enforcement, said a bomb in a parked car was detonated remotely when the officer, who lived nearby, walked past it.

Russian military launched 103 drones overnight targeting five regions, Ukraine's air force said on Friday.

The attacks caused damage in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast, in the Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy regions in the center, as well as in the Donetsk region, the air force wrote on Telegram. 

Ukrainian air defense units shot down 41 drones, and 40 additional drones were redirected through electronic warfare, it added. 

Three people were killed and eight more were wounded on Friday in a Russian attack on the central-eastern city of Pavlohrad in Ukraine, said Dnipropetrovsk regional Governor Serhiy Lysak. 

"Unfortunately, there are already three dead in Pavlohrad. Among them is a child," Lysak said on the Telegram messaging service. 

"The aggressor again conducted a mass attack on the region with drones," he added. 

Several fires broke out in the city, including a multi-story building, sites of enterprises in the Synelnykivskyi and Samarivskyi districts, he said, adding that 11 drones were destroyed over the region. 

Six injured were hospitalized, and two others, including a 15-year-old girl, were treated on-site. Search and rescue operations were ongoing, Lysak added.

The industrial city of Pavlohrad had a pre-war population of approximately 100,000 people. It serves as an important railway hub for the Dnipropetrovsk region, connecting it to Ukraine's eastern Donbas, much of which is now occupied by Russian forces.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said parts of a possible deal between his country and the United States to end the war in Ukraine must still be "fine-tuned."

However, Lavrov said the process, which has not involved Ukraine, is moving in the right direction.

"There are still some specific points — elements — of this deal which need to be fine-tuned and we are busy with this exact process," Lavrov told US broadcaster CBS.

"There are several signs that we are moving in the right direction," Lavrov said, adding that Russia is "ready to reach a deal."

The remarks came after a combined Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 80. 

The onslaught drew rare direct criticism from US President Donald Trump, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the violence.