A Russian serviceman was killed in a car explosion in the Pushkinsky district of St Petersburg, investigators said on Thursday.

“Investigative authorities have opened ‌a criminal ‌case into the murder ⁠of a member of the armed forces,” a statement ‌from Russia’s ​Investigative ‌Committee ⁠said.

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to meet president Vladimir Putin.

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy, greeted the US negotiators at a Moscow airport, ahead of their meeting with the Kremlin chief later in the day.

“Welcoming Steve and Jared to Moscow,” Dmitriev said on X, posting a picture of himself shaking hands with Witkoff near a plane on a grey wintery morning, Kushner standing alongside.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed to a prisoner exchange ​during ⁠two days of peace ‌talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Wednesday, but US mediators said differences remained on major issues, including territorial ‌questions.

Kushner has said European partners must be at the Russia-Ukraine negotiating table. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Telegram it had hit military and energy facilities in Ukraine as well as ⁠a munitions warehouse in the capital Kyiv.

Russia has hit military and energy facilities in Ukraine as well as a munitions warehouse in Kyiv and the surrounding region, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

Russia ⁠also hit a cargo vessel en route to ‌the Odesa ​region ports, ‌it ⁠added.

Russia’s ⁠ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, has died aged ⁠66, ​the ⁠Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Ministry ⁠spokespersonMaria Zakharova ​said ⁠later on ‌Telegram that Darchiev had died in Moscow ‌from a chronic ‌illness.

Putin appointed Darchiev, a veteran ⁠diplomat known in the past for his public denunciations of the West, as ambassador to Washington in ‌March 2025 to ​lead a ‌rapprochement with ⁠the Trump administration ⁠that has rattled Ukraine ‌and ​European countries.

A Ukrainian drone strike has killed an employee of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant at his home in southeastern Ukraine, according to the facility’s Russian-appointed management.

The worker was reportedly killed after returning home from his shift in Enerhodar, the town where many of the plant’s employees live.

Russian officials said the latest death brought the number of plant employees killed since April to 15, amid repeated attacks in the surrounding area.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are continuing to strike homes in Enerhodar and nearby villages,” the plant’s management said in a statement on Wednesday.

It warned that continued shelling was worsening living conditions and raising concerns about safety at the nuclear facility.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power station with six reactors, shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of carrying out attacks that threaten nuclear safety.

The plant is not currently generating electricity but remains dependent on external power supplies to keep its reactor fuel cool.

​US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff ⁠will arrive in Moscow on Thursday after ⁠trilateral ​talks in ⁠Abu Dhabi for ⁠a meeting ​with ⁠Russian president ‌Vladimir Putin in Kremlin, two sources ‌with direct ‌knowledge of the visit’s preparation ⁠said.

The pair, which are brokering Russia-Ukraine peace talks, will meet with Putin’s ‌special envoy ​Kirill Dmitriev ‌before ⁠the Kremlin talks, ⁠the sources told Reuters.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi have agreed on the importance of talks between world leaders to advance peace and denuclearisation, including a potential trilateral summit involving Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

The two diplomats spoke by phone on Wednesday ahead of Trump’s visit to China for next week’s APEC summit and Xi’s planned trip to Florida for the G20 summit next month.

According to the US State Department, Rubio and Wang reaffirmed their leaders’ commitment to maintaining a constructive relationship based on mutual respect, fairness and reciprocity.

The call comes amid efforts to arrange a three-way meeting between Trump, Xi and Putin, potentially on the sidelines of the APEC summit, to discuss nuclear arms

Russia and Ukraine launched attacks targeting each other’s capitals early on Thursday, just hours after peace talks in Abu Dhabi ended without a breakthrough on key issues.

Explosions were heard across Kyiv in the early hours, although there were no immediate reports of damage.

Meanwhile, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defences had shot down five drones heading towards the Russian capital.

The attacks came a day after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators concluded two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, where they agreed to a prisoner exchange but remained divided over major issues, including territory.

US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are expected to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday for further negotiations.

The pair are also expected to raise the possibility of bringing European partners into the peace process, with Kushner insisting they must have a seat at the negotiating table.

The US negotiators are then scheduled to travel to Ireland for talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to attend a meeting of European leaders there.

A spate of deadly bear attacks has left 35 people dead across Russia since the start of the spring, with the latest victim ⁠a security guard at a holiday camp in Kamchatka, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

The number of deaths has risen sharply in recent weeks, rising to 35 from 22 as ⁠of early October, according ​to ⁠RIA.

Russia’s population of brown bears has more than doubled in the last three decades to 308,000, ⁠in part due to shorter and milder winters. Some regions ​have ⁠struggled to control bear numbers ‌and the government said in September it was drawing up measures to make it easier cull them.

Alexei Tsydenov, ‌the head of Russia’s Buryatia region ‌where at least two people have been killed by bears so far this year, told state TV this month that rising bear ⁠numbers and the spike in attacks on humans was partly linked to hunters enlisting in the army at a time when Russia’s forces are fighting in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday that its drones ⁠had struck Russia’s major Baltic port ⁠of Ust-Luga, ​a key ⁠point for shipment ⁠of oil ​products, triggering ⁠a fire ‌and damaging part of its ‌network of tanks.

“According ‌to preliminary information, as ⁠a result of drone strikes on the port’s oil infrastructure, the tank network suffered ‌the most ​damage,” ‌Ukraine’s General ⁠Staff said ⁠on Telegram, noting five ‌tanks ​had ‌sustained damage.