These are the key events on day 1,157 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Saturday, April 26:
Fighting
- A senior Russian general was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow’s eastern suburb of Balashikha, in what Russian investigators and Kremlin authorities said was a “terrorist attack”.
- Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, a member of the Russian General Staff, was killed when a Volkswagen Golf exploded after an improvised explosive device was triggered.
- The Kremlin swiftly blamed Ukraine for the car bomb, the latest in a series of Russian military officers and pro-war figures to be assassinated since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Kyiv did not comment on the claims by Moscow that it was behind the killing.
- Russian war bloggers described Moskalik as a rising star. He had participated in several high-level Russian delegations that had met Western officials to try to negotiate a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.
- Russia continued its bombardment of Ukraine on Friday with a drone striking an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, killing three people and injuring 10 others,
- A child and a 76-year-old woman were among the civilians killed in the nighttime drone strike on Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the head of the regional administration, Serhii Lysak, wrote on Telegram.
- Russian forces fired 103 Shahed and decoy drones at five Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s air force reported. Authorities in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy and Kharkiv regions reported damage to civilian infrastructure but no casualties.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the site of the deadly Russian attack in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that killed at least 12 people on Thursday.
- Zelenskyy said Russian forces used the attack on Kyiv as cover to launch almost 150 assaults on Ukrainian positions along the roughly 1,000-km (620-mile) front line.
Today, together with diplomatic representatives of the states and international organizations operating in Ukraine, we visited the site of the ballistic missile strike in Kyiv. The very place where the explosion of the missile claimed the lives of 12 of our people. My… pic.twitter.com/ncz8eXhioo
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 25, 2025
- President Zelenskyy also said that components manufactured by US companies were found in a missile used in the Kyiv attack.
Ceasefire
- Speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine’s position on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula had not changed, as the United States was reported to be pressuring Kyiv to give up the territory as part of ceasefire talks with Moscow.
- “Ukraine will not legally recognise any temporarily occupied territories. It seems to me that this is an absolutely fair position, it is legal not only from the point of view of the Constitution of Ukraine, first of all, but also from the point of view of international law,” Zelenskyy said.
- “I agree with President Trump that Ukraine does not have enough weapons to regain control of the Crimean Peninsula with weapons. But we and the world have sanctions options,” he added.
- Zelenskyy’s comments came as US President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia”, the latest example of how he was pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war.
- President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin for three hours in Moscow on Friday to discuss the US plan to end the war in Ukraine.
- Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Witkoff and Putin had a “constructive” conversation, including “a discussion on the possibility of renewing direct negotiations” between Kyiv and Moscow. Ushakov said the meeting had brought the US and Russian positions on Ukraine “closer together”.
- Trump said in a social media post after Witkoff’s meeting concluded that it was a good day of talks and called for a high-level meeting between Kyiv and Moscow to close a deal.
- “Most of the major points are agreed to,” Trump said in the post after landing in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.
Diplomacy
- Ukrainian Zelenskyy has suggested that he may not attend the funeral of the late Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday due to the increase in Russia’s attacks on his country and his attendance at a “military meeting”. Referring to the possibility of cancelling his trip to Rome, Zelenskyy said: “For me, it was important to be here.”
- “If I cannot make it, Ukraine will be represented with dignity. The Foreign Minister [Andrii Sybiha] and the First Lady [Olena Zelenska] will be present,” Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv.
- President Trump demanded on social media that Zelenskyy “IMMEDIATELY” sign a long-delayed agreement giving the US access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.
- “Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States. It is at least three weeks late,” Trump said
