Russia blames Ukraine for deadly supermarket strike

Russia accused Ukraine of conducting a deadly missile strike Friday on a supermarket in the Moscow-controlled city of Donetsk, while Kyiv reported a massive wave of Russian drone attacks on several regions and fierce fighting near the strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

The fighting on Friday came a day after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Ramstein, Germany, where Kyiv's allies vowed no letup in aid to bolster Ukraine's air defenses amid Moscow's relentless assaults, including attacks on civilian and infrastructure sites.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who traveled to Rome following the Ramstein gathering, also praised new actions by the United States and Britain to sanction Russia's oil producers, a major liquefied natural gas project, and more than 100 tankers in its "shadow fleet" as the West looks to deprive Moscow of funds needed to carry on its war.

Russian state RIA news agency said investigators were looking into the supermarket attack early Friday, claiming a U.S.-supplied HIMARS missile hit the supermarket, killing two people, in the occupied city.

Video on social media, which has been verified by RFE/RL, appears to show a massive explosion in an area where a small market is located.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the Russian accusation.

The Ukrainian Air Force, meanwhile, said Russia attacked Ukraine with 72 Shahed-type strike drones in the Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskiy, Vinnytsia and Kherson regions.

In Kyiv, bright flashes and explosions were seen as defense systems intercepted several drones in the sky. No deaths were reported, though some damage from debris was seen at a high-rise residential building, military officials said.

The Ukrainian General Staff said several small towns east of Pokrovsk and an important highway a few kilometers south of the area had been the site of intense battles on Friday.

Pokrovsk has been the target of Russia's brutal drive in recent months, mainly destroying the city with a prewar population of about 64,000 people.

As intense attacks and fighting on the front lines continue, diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict appear to be picking up momentum.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it expects Kyiv to have high-level talks with the White House once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

"We are waiting for a meeting between our presidents because for us the main thing is to work together with America. ... We are preparing for contacts at the highest and high levels immediately after the inauguration," ministry spokesperson Heorhiy Tykhiy said.

The Kremlin said it remains willing to meet with Trump and that there has been progress in setting up a meeting after the new president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

"No conditions are required for this, just a mutual desire and political will to conduct a dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue is required," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow a day after Trump said a meeting was being set up between him and President Vladimir Putin, though he laid out no timeline.

At Ramstein, hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid was pledged -- including $500 million from Washington as part of the outgoing President Joe Biden's goal of sending as much support as possible before Trump returns to office.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, thanked Washington and London for their "synchronized action" in sanctioning Russian energy firms and ships operating the Kremlin's so-called "shadow fleet" of sanctions-busting vessels in the Baltic Sea -- which are also suspected of sabotaging communications and electrical cables in the body of water.