Russia-Ukraine talks end without breakthrough announcement amid barrage of drones

LONDON -- Ukraine and Russia exchanged large cross-border drone strikes overnight into Wednesday, before the second day of trilateral U.S.-Ukraine-Russia peace talks concluded without a breakthrough in Abu Dhabi.

A significant Ukrainian drone attack was reported on the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga -- a key hub for Russian energy and commodity exports located close to the second largest city of St. Petersburg.

Aleksandr Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region in which Ust-Luga is located, said in a post to Telegram that 150 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region overnight. "The target of the attack was the port area of Ust-Luga," he wrote.

"As a result of several drones hitting the area, a fire broke out, and three workers were injured. Their lives are not in danger," Drozdenko said.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said in a post to Telegram, "Something is burning in the area near the port of Ust-Luga, near St. Petersburg."

The drones reported intercepted over Leningrad were among at least 627 craft downed by Russian forces overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said in a statement. Ukrainian craft were shot down over 22 regions -- including Moscow -- occupied Crimea and the Sea of Azov, the ministry said.

Two people were killed in a drone attack in the western Russian region of Smolensk, the local governor said. One person was also wounded by a drone attack in the border region of Belgorod, local officials said.

Authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia all issued warnings of potential drone incursions amid the overnight attacks, though did not specify the suspected origin of the craft. Ukrainian drones have previously strayed into all three countries on route to striking Russian targets.

Russia's federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, issued temporary flight restrictions at more than 20 airports across the country amid the latest attacks. Among those put under restrictions included Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg and two of Moscow's four international airports -- Vnukovo and Domodedovo.

Ukraine's air force, meanwhile, said Russia launched 163 drones, of which 91 were jet-powered, into the country overnight, along with an unspecified number of Х-59/69 air-to-ground missiles and Banderol cruise missiles. Defenders intercepted or suppressed 130 drones, of which 72 were jet-powered, and 14 Bandrol missiles, the air force said.

Impacts were reported across 17 locations, the air force added.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post to Telegram that at least one person was injured in an attack on the capital. Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported that Russian attacks also injured six people in the Zaporizhzhia region, one person in Kharkiv and five people in Zhytomyr.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi, meanwhile, said in a statement that Russian attacks again targeted critical energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine. Among those hit were six "large power substations" in Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr and Cherkasy, he said.

The latest strikes come as American, Russian and Ukrainian peace talks delegations were gathered in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for the first round of trilateral talks since February. European representatives from France, the U.K., Germany and Italy are also present in Abu Dhabi.

Russian state media reported that the second day of talks ended after around two hours. Tuesday's talks lasted around four and a half hours.

President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were leading the U.S. delegation. At a press conference after the talks ended on Wednesday, Kushner described the meetings as a "positive step."

Kushner added that the U.S. delegation would travel to Moscow on Thursday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the first day of talks as "constructive and quite substantive." On Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader said negotiators discussed new prisoner exchanges, "security guarantees for Ukraine" and "broader formats for further work involving the Europeans."

Zelenskyy said he plans to meet with Witkoff and Kushner in Dublin on Thursday. "Ukraine's priority is to end the war as soon as possible with a dignified peace. We believe that Europe must be represented at every stage of real diplomacy," he said.

"It is essential that the United States have a strong position and exert influence on the source of this war -- that is Russia -- so that Russia ends the war of its own making," he added.

On Tuesday while on a visit to Denmark, Zelenskyy suggested to the country's national broadcaster that Putin is not genuine in his professed desire for a deal.

"If Putin doesn't want a ceasefire and says, 'No, I want a long plan, with different questions, both difficult, sensitive, and not. And then, when we sign this long plan, we will stop the war,' it simply means he doesn't want to stop the war," Zelensky said.

After the talks concluded on Wednesday, Russia's chief negotiator -- Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky -- told reporters, "We exchanged our positions. In some areas we found common ground, while in others we did not. No doubt, this discussion will continue."

Medinsky added that the sides agreed on another exchange of prisoners of war with the details to be announced at a later date. But he was dismissive of any European involvement in the talks. "We do not really understand what there is to discuss with them," he said.

"We have not received a single peace initiative or a single concrete peace proposal from European countries, so it is unclear what there is to discuss. When they come up with some concrete proposals, then we'll give those proposals some thought," Medinsky added.

ABC News' Patrick Reevell, Will Gretsky, Guy Davies, Joe Simonetti, Othon Leyva and Anna Sergeeva contributed to this report.