Kazakh leader tells Putin war should end, Ukraine launches fresh strikes

Moscow (AFP) – Ukrainian drones struck a Siberian oil refinery in a fresh wave of strikes Saturday, as Kazakhstan's president told Russia's Vladimir Putin the Ukraine war should end during a forum in Siberia's Omsk.

In occupied Ukraine, Russian-installed authorities said a Ukrainian strike had killed 12 people at a seaside "tourist camp", as well as one more in a Moscow-held town and two in Russian border villages.

Kyiv said Russian attacks had killed five people in eastern and southern Ukraine, and two crew members were missing after a Russian strike on a cargo ship carrying corn.

The deaths come as the UN has warned of civilians dying in larger numbers recently in the almost 4.5-year war.

Moscow said Ukraine -- which has intensified its retaliatory strikes -- launched more than 300 drones into Russia Saturday, including on far-flung regions.

The governor of Siberia's Tyumen region said a local oil refinery had been set ablaze. Russia's athletics federation said an all-Russian competition in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg had been halted over drone threats.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the Siberia strike and said Kyiv had hit a military factory in the Kirov region for a second day in a row, a day after local authorities said an attack there had killed five people.

Kyiv has said its retaliatory strikes are aimed at damaging Moscow's war effort and forcing the Kremlin to negotiate.

In Siberia's Omsk hours after the strikes, Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Putin the Ukraine war should end as the pair met for a Russia-Kazakh summit.

"It is a shame, young people are dying... All this has to be stopped," Tokayev said sitting next to Putin in televised comments.

Putin is rarely confronted with officials publicly telling him the fighting should stop.

Tokayev said the conflict should be "frozen" and suggested a return to Istanbul talks before moving "to a long-awaited peace."

The Central Asian leader, who is a Moscow ally but who has never condoned Russia's offensive, said the roots of the war are "not understandable".

Putin responded that he would inform Tokayev on "the details" of the war.

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