President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his first conversation with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "long and meaningful" as Russia increased the pressure on the defenders of Bakhmut -- the site of the most intense battle for the eastern Donetsk region.
"Had a long meaningful telephone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter. "I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine's ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations."
Zelenskiy did not provide other details about the call, but his spokesman, Serhiy Nykyforov, said on Facebook that the two had an almost hourlong telephone conversation.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that Xi told Zelenskiy that "talks and negotiation" were the "only way out" of the war. China says it is neutral in the conflict and Xi has refrained from condemning the invasion.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby welcomed the call but said it was too soon to tell whether it would lead to a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
"If there's going to be a negotiated peace, it's got to be when President Zelenskiy is ready for it," Kirby said, adding that the United States would welcome any effort to arrive at peace as long as it could be sustainable.
Kirby said the United States did not have advance knowledge of the call.
"These are two sovereign leaders and we're glad to see that they did talk," Kirby said.
There remains a wide gulf between Ukraine and Russia over the preconditions for peace talks: Kyiv says Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, while Moscow insists Ukraine recognize its claims to have annexed seized territory.
"Peace must be just and sustainable, based on the principles of international law and respect for the UN Charter. There can be no peace at the expense of territorial compromises. The territorial integrity of Ukraine must be restored within the 1991 borders," Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Beijing has floated a peace proposal -- a 12-point paper calling for a de-escalation and eventual cease-fire in Ukraine -- dismissed by Kyiv and its Western allies as echoing Russian talking points.
Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye last week sparked widespread condemnation by suggesting countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations."
Russia has used such sentiment as one of the reasons it justifies its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union, launched in February 2022.
China's Foreign Ministry later backtracked on Lu's comments, affirming that it has always recognized the sovereign status of countries that were at some point part of the Soviet Union.
On the battlefield, Moscow has been stepping up its offensive actions on the Bakhmut-Avdiyivka-Maryinka front line in the east, where Ukrainian defenders are facing increasing pressure from Russian shelling, air strikes, mortar fire, and infantry assaults, Kyiv said on April 26.
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"Russia is concentrating its main efforts on conducting offensive operations on Bakhmut, Avdiyivka, and Maryinka, where Ukrainian forces repelled 39 Russian attacks over the last 24 hours," the General Staff said in its daily report.
"Fierce battles continue in Bakhmut and Maryinka," the military said.
Russian troops launched three missile strikes, 13 air strikes, and 49 rocket salvoes at Ukrainian positions and civilian infrastructure, it added.
Repeated Russian assaults have also been repelled in the village of Klishchiyivka, some 10 kilometers south of Bakhmut, the Donetsk region city that has been the epicenter of a monthslong, grinding battle.
Six drones fired by Russian troops were shot down on April 26 in the sky over the Kherson region, the Ukrainian air force reported, identifying the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as five Lancet attack UAVs and one Merlin-VR UAV.
The regional military administration in Sumy said Russian troops fired 100 shells along the border using aircraft, artillery, and mortars, injuring two residents of a border village and damaging residential buildings.
Sumy borders three regions of Russia -- Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod. Ukraine's border are regularly shelled by Russia.
In the southern Zaporizhzhya region, where Europe's largest nuclear power plant is located, an air-raid alert was declared overnight.
RFE/RL correspondents reported numerous explosions that were likely caused by attacking Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Yuriy Malashko, the head of Zaporizhzhya military administration, urged inhabitants to take cover but did not elaborate on the nature of the blasts. "Stay in safe places until the air alert is over," he said.
Russian forces, who control the local nuclear power plant, regularly shell the parts of Zaporizhzhya region still under Ukrainian control.
On April 25, a Russian missile strike on a museum in the eastern city of Kupyansk killed at least two people and injured 10, an attack that Zelenskiy described as "barbaric."
Oleh Synyehubov, the head of the Kharkiv region military administration, told RFE/RL that the April 25 strike on the Kupyansk city center involved S-300 type missiles, one of which hit the Museum of Local History.
"The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people. Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, adding, "We must and will respond!"
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Separately, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Moscow began using its new T-14 Armata battle tanks in the war, firing on Ukrainian positions but not yet participating "in direct assault."
The tank has an unmanned turret that a crew controls remotely from "an isolated armored capsule located in the front of the hull," the report said.
But, according to British military intelligence, Russian forces have complained about the poor condition of the first of the tanks to arrive.
"Eleven years in development, the program has been dogged with delays, reduction in planned fleet size, and reports of manufacturing problems," the British intelligence report said.
