News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

Zelensky will meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus, Syria TV said.

In the latest episode of Ukraine This Week, Anna Belokur examines why the United States is re-engaging with Belarus — and what it could mean for Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The latest attack comes as Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that foreign allies have asked Kyiv to pause drone attacks on Russian oil refineries as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran drives up fuel prices worldwide.

Russia provided Iran with satellite intelligence on over 50 Israeli energy sites, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 5, the latest of a series of Ukrainian claims that Russia is supporting Tehran militarily.

Russia launched 93 long-range kamikaze Shahed-type drones overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that Ukraine downed 76 of them.

The number includes 1,180 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Russian forces launched a drone attack on the city of Odesa overnight on April 5, damaging a residential building and injuring at least three people, local officials reported.

Two enlistment officers in the city of Vinnytsia have been injured in a knife attack during a procedural document check, the Vinnytsia Oblast Regional Recruitment Center reported on April 4.

"We are receiving certain signals about this," Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, told Bloomberg.

Ukraine expects U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to visit Kyiv this month to resume peace talks, Presidential Office Head Kyrylo Budanov told Bloomberg in an interview on April 4.

An investigation by the StateWatch think tank and United24 Media reveals how cellulose acetate produced by the European company Cerdia is funneled through intermediaries in the tobacco sector, ultimately reaching a Russian factory critical for the production of Kalibr cruise missiles.

In one of the worst attacks, a Russian drone targeted a market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing at least five people and injuring 27 on the morning of April 4.

The leaders "agreed on new steps in security cooperation," Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the talks. Ukraine is ready to support Turkey with "expertise, technology, and experience," and details of the agreements will be finalized in the coming days.