What 4 April 2026 said about talks and strikes

Was Kyiv's offer of more peace talks heard over the sound of the strikes? On 4 April 2026, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was willing to hold the next round of negotiations with Russia and the United States. The same day, a Russian drone struck a market in Nikopol, in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing five people and injuring 19.

The pairing was stark. On 3 April, Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine had already killed six people and injured five others, including a child. Diplomacy and attacks on civilians ran side by side.

The negotiating positions

The talks Zelenskyy referred to belong to a longer series of rounds since the 2022 invasion. As later background describes them, Russia's president Vladimir Putin seeks recognition of occupied land as Russian, guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, limits on Ukraine's military and the lifting of sanctions. Zelenskyy seeks a ceasefire, full withdrawal of Russian troops, the return of prisoners and abducted children, prosecution of Russian leaders for war crimes, and security guarantees.

The days before

The preceding days showed pressure on Russia beyond the front line. On 2 April, Moldova's parliament approved withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States, with the government citing Russia's war against Ukraine and its illegal military presence on Moldovan territory. On 3 April, the Swedish Coast Guard boarded and seized an EU-sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker in the Baltic Sea after a 12-kilometre oil spill off Gotland.

On 2 April, a Ukrainian airstrike destroyed a Russian Antonov An-72 at Kirovske Air Base in occupied Crimea. Kenya also reported that at least 16 of its citizens were missing after being recruited to fight for Russia, with 38 others in Russian hospitals under restricted access.