A city with a pre-war population of 60,000, Pokrovsk is located west of Avdiivka which fell to Russian forces in February 2024 and is a critical hub in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday renewed his offer to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, but hopes of progress were low as delegations prepared to hold another round of talks.

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Kravchenko has convened with representatives of the Group of Seven (G7) countries, where they discussed "special operations to neutralise Russian influence on NABU [National Anti-Corruption Bureau - ed.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams will again meet in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed, for the first such meeting since President Donald Trump set a 50-day deadline for a ceasefire to be reached.

Russia attacked Ukraine with missiles and hundreds of drones overnight, killing two people, wounding 15 and causing damage and fires in several parts of the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Putin has spurned Zelenskyy's previous offers of a face-to-face meeting to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.