Russia says 1 killed in Kursk drone strike – DW – 04/15/2025

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said in an interview with Russian media that it was not easy to agree with Washington on the key elements of a possible peace deal to end the three-year war in Ukraine. 

“It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Kommersant newspaper, in comments published Tuesday, when questioned if Russia and the US had consensus on some parts of a possible peace settlement. 

“We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like, which we have never rejected, and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap,” the foreign minister added.

Lavrov also said that Russian political elite would not support any moves that led Moscow back towards economic, military, technological or agricultural dependence on the West.

At least one person was killed and nine others were injured in an overnight Ukrainian drone attack in the city of Kursk in Russia’s west, regional authorities and Russian state news agency TASS said on Tuesday. 

An 85-year woman died in the attack, the regional government said in a post on Telegram, calling the strike “massive.”

Fires broke out in some apartment blocks across the city, the statement added. 

A multi-story apartment building was damaged in the attack, acting mayor of Kursk, Sergei Kotlyarov wrote on Telegram. 

Kotlyarov said that residents have been evacuated to a nearby school.

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday that 109 Ukrainian drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

The attack came as the Ukrainian city of Sumy mourned one of the deadliest Russian attacks in the ongoing war. 

At least 34 people were killed when two Russian missiles struck the center of the eastern city on Palm Sunday morning. 

Kyiv’s forces have destroyed thousands of Russian military vehicles since the start of 2025 as part of a bid to limit Moscow’s logistics on the front line, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said late on Monday. 

“Since the beginning of this year, the enemy has lost 11,583 vehicles and special equipment,” he said on Telegram, referring to Russia.

Syrskyi added that over 35,000 Russian military vehicles were destroyed last year. 

The military chief claimed that the attacks had stopped thousands of tons of equipment, ammunition and fuel from reaching Russian soldiers. 

He said that knocking down Russian logistics remains a key task for Ukrainian forces. 

Ukraine is reeling from a devastating Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy that killed at least 34 people, including children, on Palm Sunday. 

Western leaders have condemned the strike, which was the deadliest this year.

US President Donald Trump called the attack “a horrible thing” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has invited the American leader to come see the damage that Russia’s invasion has brought with his own eyes.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Russia accused Ukraine of a deadly strike on the Kursk region.

You can read about the latest developments in the Ukraine war in DW’s rolling coverage of events.