Here is where things stand on Wednesday, April 16:

Fighting

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its units destroyed 115 Ukrainian drones in an overnight attack.
• The ministry also accused Kyiv of carrying out six attacks on Kremlin energy infrastructure in the past day, despite a mutually agreed 30-day moratorium on energy strikes.
• A Russian military court jailed a Kremlin soldier for 15 years after convicting him of desertion and voluntarily surrendering to Ukraine.
• A Russian court also jailed five young Russian citizens, all in their 20s, for setting fire to a helicopter and railway equipment on behalf of Ukraine. They were convicted of sabotage and terrorism and handed sentences of up to 18 years in prison.

• One person was killed and seven others injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s Kursk region, the Ministry of Health said. Four of the seven were hospitalised, with one in serious condition. The attack also destroyed two residential buildings and 15 cars.
• Kyiv’s air force said Moscow attacked Ukraine with 52 drones and one missile overnight, out of which 26 drones were shot down. Nineteen drones reportedly failed to reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare measures.
• Ukraine’s military said it hit a base of the Russian rocket brigade which carried out the deadly missile attack that killed 35 people in Sumy city on Sunday.

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Politics and diplomacy

• United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, following a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, said the latter was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper that it was not easy to agree with the US on “key components” of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that political will exists to move in the direction of a possible US-Russia deal on Ukraine. However, he said there is no clear outline of what the deal would be like.
• Peskov also addressed the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas calling on member states to skip Russia’s Victory Day events on May 9. “We pay attention to her very, very harsh statements. We do not consider them correct,” he said, classifying Kallas’s statements as “threats”.

• Russia’s foreign spy service chief, Sergey Naryshkin, said the security services of Russia and Belarus were ready to act proactively in the event of an attack on either country.
• Naryshkin told state news agency TASS that Ukraine must renounce its ambitions to join NATO and give up territories annexed by Russia. Ukraine must also be a “nuclear-free, neutral” country and that “demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian state, and abolition of all discriminatory laws passed after the 2014 coup” are a must.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted two bills to Ukraine’s parliament to extend military mobilisation and martial law in the country for another 90 days, ending on August 6.
• He also initiated proceedings to dismiss the military governor of Sumy, Volodymyr Artyukh, following the deadly attack on the northeastern region which killed 35 and injured hundreds.
• Zelenskyy told NATO chief Mark Rutte that Ukraine has an “acute” need for air defence systems and missiles.
• In a surprise visit to the port city of Odesa, Rutte said the US-led ceasefire talks were not easy but expressed support for President Trump’s push for peace. Rutte also condemned Russia’s “outrageous” and “terrible pattern” of attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

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