Russian drones kill three in Ukraine, cut power to 1 million as US, Russia seek further cooperation

Russian drones killed at least three people across Ukraine early on Friday, hit two shopping centers and temporarily knocked out power to over 1 million people nationwide after strikes on the energy grid, officials said.

A 71-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man died, and 12 more people were wounded in attacks on three districts of the eastern city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. He had earlier put the death toll at three.

Ukraine's energy ministry said its repair crews had restored power to over 1 million people who lost it in Russian attacks on Friday. It was unclear how many people were still without power.

Almost 300,000 remain temporarily without power

In the northwestern region of Volyn, which borders Poland, a drone strike on a food-processing facility killed one person and wounded eight others, according to Governor Roman Romaniuk. He said 370,000 people were temporarily without power in the morning, although 100,000 of them got supply back later on.

The blackout could last for at least 24 hours in Volyn's regional capital, Lutsk, Mayor Andriy Razumovskyi said on Facebook.

Romaniuk said that drone attacks continued throughout the day, striking a customs terminal and torching about 10 trucks in the town of Kovel, which sits on a major trunk road from Kyiv to Poland.

Other attacks hit at least two shopping centers, one in the northern city of Sumy, which sits close to the front line, and one in the neighboring region of Rivne, officials said, the latest in a spate of Russian assaults on malls and markets.

Pictures from emergency services in Sumy showed blood spattered across the floor and shots of the center's damaged entrance.

Seven people were wounded by drones that hit a major shopping center and other sites in Rivne, regional governor Oleksandr Koval said.

Ukraine's energy ministry said large parts of the city of Rivne and the surrounding area were without power after attacks on energy infrastructure there.

Russia, US to announce new joint initiatives beyond diesel deal

Russia and the United States will soon announce new joint initiatives beyond a recently agreed diesel deal, President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Friday.

Dmitriev said the two countries were discussing joint data center projects, including facilities that could use electricity generated by Russian nuclear power plants.

Dmitriev said that the projects would be launched before the end of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Following a report in the Financial Times that the US had proposed European countries transfer some frozen Russian assets to a vehicle overseen by Washington to try to revive stalled peace talks, Zelensky said that Ukraine could not risk any deal being struck to return the assets to Moscow.

Ukrainians struggling with a fifth year of Russian attacks on their power grid and other civilian infrastructure have said they are appalled by Trump's decision to open the US market for Russian diesel. They have also condemned his attempts to blame fuel shortages caused by the Iran war on Kyiv's military strikes on Russian refineries.

"In my view, we cannot accept these diesel deals, these agreements, because gas deals will follow. I am absolutely certain of this. Sanctions will be lifted on other things as well after gas," Zelensky told reporters in Brussels.