Multiple dead, postal terminal damaged in Russia's overnight drone attacks: Ukraine

Swarms of Russian drones attacked Ukraine overnight and into Wednesday, killing at least five people and destroying a postal terminal, Ukrainian officials said.

An image posted by Ukraine's Nova Poshta mailing company showed a warehouse in the western city of Lutsk in flames, thick smoke pouring from its roof.

The attacks came a day after the Kremlin rejected a Ukrainian proposal for a temporary ceasefire over the Easter holiday.

"We proposed a ceasefire for Easter, in response, we're getting 'shaheds'," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Facebook, referring to the Iranian-designed drones that Russia uses.

A Russian drone killed four people in the central Cherkasy region, part of a wider attack on western Ukraine that hit infrastructure far from the fighting.

An earlier drone strike on a car in Ukraine's frontline Kherson region killed a woman and badly wounded two other people, regional authorities said.

Zelenskyy flags tense front as negotiations resume

Russia has meanwhile stepped up pressure on the front line, claiming on Wednesday to have taken two villages in eastern Ukraine and fully captured the Lugansk region, which was already almost completely occupied.

Zelenskyy described the situation on the front as "quite tense" in a separate social media post.

The Ukrainian leader was to hold a video call later Wednesday with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on resuming negotiations with Russia, now frozen due to the war in Iran.

"Today will be a pretty busy diplomatic day," Zelenskyy said.