KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded two others in a region some 260 miles (418 kilometers) east of Moscow, a Russian official said Monday, as fighting continued ahead of Friday's Russia-U.S. summit in which President Vladimir Putin seeks a peace deal to lock in Moscow’s gains.
Nizhny Novgorod region Gov. Gleb Nikitin said in a statement that drones targeted two “industrial zones” and caused the casualties and unspecified damage.
A Ukrainian official said at least four drones launched by the security services, or SBU, struck a plant in Arzamas city that produced components for Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operations, said the Plandin plant produces gyroscopic devices, control systems and on-board computers for the missiles and is an “absolutely legitimate target” because it is part of the Russian military-industrial complex that works for the war against Ukraine.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed a total of 39 Ukrainian drones overnight and Monday morning over several Russian regions as well as over the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Friday's summit, which U.S. President Donald Trump will host in Alaska, sees Putin unwavering on his demands to keep all the Ukrainian territory his forces now occupy and to prevent Kyiv from joining NATO, with the long-term aim of keeping Ukraine under Moscow's sphere of influence.
Putin believes he has the advantage on the ground as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold back Russian advances along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. On the front lines, few Ukrainian soldiers believe there’s an end in sight to the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists he will never consent to any Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory nor give up his country's bid for NATO membership. European leaders have rallied behind Ukraine, saying peace can’t be resolved without Kyiv.
With Europeans and Ukrainians so far not invited to the summit, Germany sought to prepare by inviting Trump, Zelenskyy, the NATO chief and several other European leaders for a virtual meeting on Wednesday.
The German chancellery said the talks would seek additional ways to pressure Russia and prepare for peace negotiations and “related issues of territorial claims and security.”
Steffen Meyer, spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said earlier Monday that the German government "has always emphasized that borders must not be shifted by force” and that Ukraine should decide its own fate “independently and autonomously..
