RUSSIAN overnight drone strikes have killed a 12-year-old boy, Ukrainian officials said today, while Ukrainian strikes reportedly targeted a Russian port and an oil refinery.

The strike on Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight on Thursday destroyed a house where the boy was killed and injured two women, according to the head of the regional military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko.

Ukrainian drones attacked a port in Russia’s Krasnodar region on the border with Ukraine. The attack sparked a fire at the Temryuk sea port and damaged port infrastructure, officials said. They show calls from Nato member Turkey for an end to strikes on facilities that disrupt international energy trade have not moved Kiev.

Ukrainian drones also aimed deeper inside Russia, attacking the city of Syzran on the Volga river, Mayor Sergei Volodchenkov said. Unconfirmed media reports said they hit an oil refinery.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met in Miami with a Ukrainian delegation on Thursday, but there was no official confirmation whether the meeting took place.

Those scheduled talks came after discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the US envoys at the Kremlin on Tuesday.

Previous diplomatic attempts to break the deadlock have come to nothing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s delegation in Miami wanted to hear from the US side about the talks at the Kremlin.

Mr Zelensky, as well as European leaders backing him, have repeatedly accused Mr Putin of stalling in peace talks while the Russian army tries to press forward with its invasion. 

German and EU leaders are currently pressing for a deal to use frozen Russian assets to fund war loans to Ukraine, fearing reports a US-brokered deal is eyeing up these assets, but the plan has been stymied by Belgian fears it could be liable for the assets in international courts and the refusal of Berlin, the European Central Bank or other European governments to guarantee it against losses.

Mr Putin told reporters in India today that Russia will fulfil the goals it set and at the start of its invasion and take all of the eastern Donetsk region. 

“All this boils down to one thing: Either we take back these territories by force, or eventually Ukrainian troops withdraw,” he said.