US President Donald Trump has said that he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, following his earlier call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
"I will be, yeah," Trump told a reporter who asked if he planned to talk with the Kremlin leader, while attending a White House dinner with US tech executives.
The remarks came as Russia carried out fresh strikes on Ukraine. In the Kharkiv region, three people were killed on Thursday night when Russian forces attacked the village of Khotymlia with drones, according to regional governor Oleg Synegubov.
"Two men and one woman were killed, and two others were wounded," he said, adding that some victims were road repair workers.
Earlier the same day, two staff members of the Danish Refugee Council were killed in Ukraine’s northern Chernigiv region when a Russian rocket struck an area being cleared of mines.
Local officials said the victims were humanitarian workers, while Russia’s defence ministry denied the claim, insisting it had targeted a long-range drone launch site.
Multinational "reassurance force"
Air alerts remained active into Friday morning across Kharkiv, Chernigiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Sumy regions.
The strikes came amid renewed efforts by European leaders to pressure Putin into pursuing a ceasefire or peace accord.
More than two dozen countries pledged Thursday to contribute troops to a future "reassurance force" that would deploy to Ukraine after any eventual peace deal, with the aim of deterring further Russian aggression.
But concerns are growing that Moscow has little interest in negotiations. Putin signalled during a visit to Beijing this week that Russia would continue fighting if no acceptable peace terms were reached.
Ukraine’s war has entered its third year, with tens of thousands killed and millions displaced.
While Western leaders continue to push for a settlement, the latest strikes underscored the ongoing intensity of the conflict.
