Russian glide bombs kill 20 in Zaporizhzhia a day after U.S. eases Russian diesel sanctions

Twenty people, including three children, were killed in a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia early Saturday, Reuters reported, citing Ukrainian officials. Eighteen others were wounded. A senior regional official, Mykhailo Semikin, said Russia hit several locations in the city at the same time.

Kyiv's reaction: "Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia," Zelenskyy said, in some of his sharpest criticism yet of the White House, according to Reuters. "Russia perceives any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly keep fighting," he said. "Different signals are needed."

The U.S. side: Trump announced Friday that Russia would supply the U.S. more than 300,000 tons of diesel right away, then 500,000 tons in November and 4 million more later, AP reported, as his administration tries to bring down fuel prices that rose during the U.S. conflict with Iran. Energy experts told AP the extra supply is unlikely to make much of a dent in prices. Trump has also criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, which he says push up global prices.

Timeline this week: On Wednesday and Thursday, Russian strikes killed nearly 80 civilians, including at least 30 in Kramatorsk and 22 in Pryluky, according to Reuters. On Friday, Ukrainian and European officials met U.S. negotiators in Miami on a joint peace proposal, and Trump announced the diesel deal while those talks were underway, which Zelenskyy said caught Kyiv by surprise. On Saturday came the Zaporizhzhia strike, a missile hit on a Kyiv restaurant that wounded seven, and power outages that halted Kyiv's metro for the second time this week.

What remains unknown: Putin said after a call with Trump that an immediate return to peace talks was unlikely, citing Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow. Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing an unnamed source, that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner may visit Moscow within two weeks; that has not been confirmed. Whether the diesel deal changes Washington's leverage over Moscow is the open question Kyiv is now pressing. Russia's Defense Ministry said its drones hit a data center in Kyiv and a cargo ship bound for Odesa, and a Russian-installed official said Ukrainian attacks killed four civilians in occupied Luhansk; Reuters could not verify those claims.

Casualty figures are from Ukrainian officials as reported by Reuters on Saturday and may change. An earlier AP report put the overnight toll across Ukraine at seven. Russian claims about targets and the TASS report on a possible Witkoff-Kushner trip to Moscow have not been independently verified.