Russian Strikes Hit Kyiv After US Envoy Meets Putin

Russian attacks on Kyiv overnight into October 22 killed at least one person and injured 22, including four children, according to Ukraine's national emergency service. The strikes came a day after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said metro infrastructure was damaged at the Pivdenny Bridge, which spans the Dnipro River. City authorities said eight of the wounded had been taken to hospital. The attacks follow another deadly strike earlier this month: on October 12, a Russian strike on a high-rise residential building in a Kyiv suburb killed two people and injured at least nine, according to officials cited by Reuters.

The Witkoff meeting took place at Constantine Palace in St Petersburg on October 21. During the visit, Russia released Stephen Hubbard, a jailed US teacher, as a goodwill gesture. Witkoff praised Putin as "humanitarian" after the release, and told him Washington was "grateful" for a diesel deal between the two countries.

US President Donald Trump said he believed the Russia-Ukraine war might be as close to ending as it has ever been. On October 22, he also said he was delaying a new wave of sanctions against Russia, the economic penalties governments place on other countries, because the delay was needed to secure Hubbard's release.

The Kremlin, Russia's government, said Moscow was "in principle" willing to restart US-mediated talks with Ukraine. It also said it was willing in principle to join new peace talks planned for November. At the same time, it said there was little "substance" in peace proposals put forward by Ukraine and European countries.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded on October 22. "Appeasement, servility, and flattery will not stop this war," he said. "Only strength will."

Fighting also spread across the border. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Ukraine had launched 630 drones at the Moscow region, wounding two people. He said 163 of the drones were sent toward Moscow city and that most were intercepted. The governor of the Tula region said Russian air defences destroyed 70 drones there, and the governor of the Lipetsk region said one man was wounded during the drone attack in his area.