Trump pushes Ukraine talks amid strikes

President Donald Trump said on April 26 that he was still talking to both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky as he tried to broker an end to the war. (reuters.com) In the Fox News interview cited by Reuters, Trump said he has “good conversations” with both leaders and called the hatred between them “ridiculous.” (reuters.com) (independent.co.uk) The diplomacy played out against fresh military action on April 27. Ukraine’s 429th Separate Regiment of Unmanned Systems, known as Achilles, said it struck a Russian Kasta-2E radar station in Volotovo, Belgorod region. (ukrinform.net) Ukrinform reported the radar site was about 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The regiment’s commander, Yurii Fedorenko, said the strike was carried out by drone crews from the unit. (ukrinform.net) A Kasta-2E is a mobile radar used to detect low-flying aircraft and drones, so knocking one out can open gaps in local air defense coverage. Ukraine’s military has also reported other recent strikes on Russian radar and missile-defense assets in Belgorod and occupied territory. (ukrinform.net) The 429th Achilles unit has changed status several times during the war as Ukraine expanded its drone forces. Its official site says it became a separate regiment in January 2025 and was redesignated as a brigade on January 10, 2026. (achilles.army) That mismatch in naming matters because reports on Sunday still described the formation as the 429th Separate Regiment, even though the unit says it is now a brigade. The claim of the strike came from Ukrainian sources, and the publicly available reports reviewed here did not include a Russian confirmation. (ukrinform.net) (achilles.army) The wider battlefield also stayed active. The Kyiv Independent reported overnight Russian drone strikes on Odesa on April 27 that hit residential infrastructure and injured 14 people, including children. (kyivindependent.com) So the picture on April 27 was two-track: Trump publicly pressed the case for talks, while both sides kept using drones and long-range strikes to shape leverage before any negotiation. (reuters.com) (ukrinform.net)