Sawt Falasteen - Russian strike on Ukraine market kills five, wounds 25

Russia has been firing aerial broadsides at Ukraine throughout its more than four-year invasion, mostly at night, but in recent weeks it has stepped up daytime attacks.

The market in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, was hit at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), the local prosecutor's office said.

Regional governor, Oleksandr Ganja, said in a Telegram post that three women and two men were killed.

He added that a 14-year-old girl was among the 25 wounded and was in a "critical condition".

Attacks continued during the morning hours on Saturday, wounding six in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, near the front line, regional police said.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia fired 286 drones overnight, of which 260 were intercepted.

In the northern Sumy region, 11 people were wounded in strikes on residential areas and civilian infrastructure overnight, police said.

Images released by Ukrainian emergency services showed a building whose upper floors were engulfed in flames. Another attack killed a woman and wounded another two in the southeastern city of Kherson, which is close to the fighting.

In Russia, a missile and drone attack on the southern Rostov region bordering Ukraine left one person dead and four seriously wounded in the city of Taganrog, regional governor Yuri Slyussar said.

On the Sea of Azov, a foreign cargo ship was damaged by falling drone debris and caught fire, he added.

A family of three, including an eight-year-old child, was killed in a house by a nighttime Ukrainian drone strike that also targeted railway infrastructure in Russian-occupied Lugansk, the Moscow-backed administration said.

- Stalled talks -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was on a surprise visit to Istanbul on Saturday for security talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Zelensky this week signalled he was ready for a truce over the Orthodox Easter holidays, but the Kremlin said it had not received "clearly formulated" proposals.

Ukraine has accused Russia of prolonging the war to capture more territory, and says Moscow is not interested in peace. Russia says it wants a permanent settlement instead of a brief ceasefire.

Talks between the two warring parties, mediated by the United States, have been stalled by the war in the Middle East.

In comments to reporters, including AFP, published on Friday, Zelensky said he had invited an American delegation to Ukraine to relaunch negotiations with Moscow.

"The delegation will do everything possible in the current conditions -- during the war with Iran -- to come to Kyiv," Zelensky said.

"The American group can come to us and, after us, go to Moscow. If it does not work out with three parties, let's do it this way," he added.

Amid the Middle East war, Ukraine has sought to leverage its expertise in fighting off Russian drones similar to those Iran has been using in retaliatory attacks across Gulf nations.

Last week, Zelensky visited several Middle Eastern countries and signed defence agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

He also suggested Ukraine could help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, whose effective closure by Iran has rattled the global economy.

He did not specify how Ukraine could contribute, but cited Kyiv's experience in restoring passage through the Black Sea, which Russia had blocked at the beginning of its invasion.

burs-asy/gv

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST