Ukraine updates: Kyiv hit with another deadly attack

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are meeting Ukrainian officials in Florida on Sunday, according to the AFP and Reuters news agencies. Both agencies cited unnamed sources.

It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a Ukrainian delegation was en route to the US.

According to a French presidency, President Emmanuel Macron will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, for talks in Paris on Monday.

The Elysee Palace said that the two leaders would discuss "the conditions for a just and lasting peace."

Zelenskyy's visit to France comes at a time when Washington is seeking to advance a plan aimed at ending the war between Kyiv and Moscow. 

Police in South Africa said Saturday they had arrested four men en route to Russia who were suspected of being signed up for the Russian military amid the war in Ukraine.

Police said the men were stopped at the boarding gate in Johannesburg on Friday. This occurred weeks after reports surfaced that 17 other South Africans were stranded in Ukraine after being lured into joining the Russian military.

Under South African law, it is prohibited to provide military assistance to foreign governments without authorization.

"The arrests followed a tip-off from (Johannesburg airport police) regarding four males who were en route to Russia via the United Arab Emirates," the elite Hawks police unit said in a statement. "A preliminary investigation revealed that a South African female had allegedly been facilitating the travel and recruitment of these individuals into the Russian Federation military."

The Hawks said the four men are due to appear in court on Monday.

Elsewhere, earlier this week, police said they will investigate Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, a daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma-Sambudla was accused by her half-sister of being part of an operation to lure men to Russia under false pretences.

Ukraine hit two "shadow fleet" tankers with drones in the Black Sea, an official from Kyiv's SBU security service said on Saturday.

The two tankers, the Virat and the Kairos, were rocked by explosions near Turkey's coastline late on Friday, according to the Turkish transport ministry. One of the fleet was struck again early Saturday, the ministry said.

"Modernized Sea Baby naval drones successfully targeted the vessels," a source in Ukraine's SBU security service told the news agency AFP.

Separately, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) announced that it had halted operations due to significant damage to a mooring at its Black Sea terminal near the port of Novorossiysk, which was caused by a Ukrainian naval drone attack. The CPC handles over one percent of the world's oil supply.

The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had hit Russia's Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region overnight, as well as the Beriev military aviation plant in Rostov region.

In a statement on social media, the military said it had reported explosions and a blaze at the refinery.

The strike targeted a key logistics hub, situated some 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the front line, that supplies diesel fuel and aviation kerosene to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.

A team of Ukrainian negotiators on Saturday headed to the United States for talks on Washington's proposal to end the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov, together with the team, is already on the way to the United States," Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

"Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the steps needed to end the war," Zelenskyy continued. "Ukraine continues to work with the United States in the most constructive way possible, and we expect that the results of the meetings in Geneva will now be hammered out in the United States."

Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has added the non-governmental organization (NGO) Human Rights Watch (HRW) to its growing list of "undesirable organizations." 

The designation means that HRW must immediately cease all activity in Russia as well as making it illegal for persons or organizations inside Russia to work with it. 

"For over three decades, Human Rights Watch's work on post-Soviet Russia has pressed the government to uphold human rights and freedoms," said Human Rights Watch Executive Director Philippe Bolopion in a statement. "Our work hasn't changed, but what's changed, dramatically, is the government's full-throttled embrace of dictatorial policies, its staggering rise in repression, and the scope of the war crimes its forces are committing in Ukraine."

Repressive prior to its invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the Kremlin has only intensified its assault on critics since February 2022.

Friday's move came on the same day that a case against the feminist punk band Pussy Riot began on "extremism" grounds and a day after the late Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation was labeled a "terrorist organization." 

Russia has designated more than 270 entities — including major independent news organizations and rights groups — "undesirable." 

HRW has been an outspoken critic of Russia's war and documented what it says are war crimes. Recently, it published an investigation into Russian troops terrorizing and killing individual civilians with drones. 

In yet another massive overnight assault, Russian forces targeted civilians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a deadly missile and drone attack that damaged buildings and sparked fires across the city. 

The projectiles slammed residential apartment complexes, killing three people and injuring two dozen more, according to Ukrainian officials.

One of the injured was a child. 

The full extent of damage is not yet clear, but the attack targeted several residential neighborhoods. 

This is the second time in days that Kyiv has been targeted. 

Earlier this week, seven people were killed in attacks involving ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons and drones, in what was described by Ukraine's Energy Ministry as a "massive combined attack" on the country's energy infrastructure.

Foreign Minister Sybiha's post excoriated Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal pursuit of his illegal war, as well as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's recent overtures to him. A Putin apologist, Orban traveled to the Kremlin this week with promises to purchase more Russian oil and to offer his services as a peace mediator.

Thank you for joining us as we bring you the latest news from Russia's war on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian capital Kyiv was once again targeted by Russian missiles and drones overnight with the country's foreign minister reporting that two civilians were killed and dozens more injured in residential areas across the city.

The Kremlin also took another step to muzzle critics of its invasion of Ukraine and abuses at home, adding the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) to its growing list of "undesirable organizations." The designation makes it illegal for anyone in the country to work with the investigative outfit.

Follow DW throughout the day for more.