Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian officials would hold talks with their US counterparts later today on issues related to post-war reconstruction and economic development as part of a broader peace plan with Russia, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The broader 20-point framework for a peace plan will be handed over to the US in the near future, he stressed.
Against this backdrop, the Ukrainian army said earlier today that it was repelling an ongoing attack on the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, launched this morning by Russian forces.
"The Russians used armored vehicles, cars and motorcycles. "The convoys tried to break through from the south to the north of the city," the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is taking part in the fighting in Pokrovsk, said on Facebook.
Russia claims to control the city in full, but Kiev says it controls its northern part. If Russian troops take Pokrovsk, it would be their biggest battlefield victory in Ukraine in nearly two years, Reuters notes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken by phone with his US counterpart Donald Trump and European leaders about Ukraine "to try to make progress," Agence France-Presse reported.
The conversation lasted 40 minutes, the French president said. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also took part in the conversation, the Elysee Palace told AFP.