KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drones slammed into two Ukrainian cities, killing at least one person in nighttime attacks, authorities said Friday, as a Kremlin official said he expected an announcement next week on dates for a fresh round of direct peace talks.

Russia’s overnight drone assault targeted the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, hitting apartment blocks, officials said.

The barrage of more than 20 drones injured almost two dozen civilians, including girls aged 17 and 12, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“Russia continues its tactics of targeted terror against our people,” Zelenskyy said on messaging app Telegram, urging the United States and the European Union to crank up economic pressure on Russia.

Russia has shown no signs of relenting in its attacks, more than three years after it invaded its neighbor. It is pressing a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 620-mile front line and has kept up long-range strikes that have hit civilian areas.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the date for the next round peace talks is expected to be agreed upon next week.

Kyiv officials have not recently spoken about resuming talks with Russia, last held when delegations met in Istanbul on June 2, though Ukraine continues to offer a ceasefire and support U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting.

The two rounds of brief talks yielded only agreements on the exchange of prisoners and wounded soldiers.

Ukraine and Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the latest swap Friday, although they did not specify how many troops were involved. Zelenskyy said most of those returning home had been in captivity for more than two years.

A fire caused by Russia’s nighttime strike on Odesa engulfed a four-story residential building, which partly collapsed and injured three emergency workers. A separate fire spread across the upper floors of a 23-story high-rise, leading to the evacuation of around 600s.

In Kharkiv, at least eight drones hit civilian infrastructure, injuring four people, including two children, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service.

Russia launched 80 Shahed and decoy drones overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, claiming that air defenses shot down or jammed 70 of them.

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Friday doubled down on his justification for the war in Ukraine, saying Russians and Ukrainians were one people “and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours” as he suggested the Russian military may yet capture more territory.

Speaking at an annual economic conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, he did not rule out Russian forces taking control of the large Ukrainian city of Sumy. A Russian offensive in northern Ukraine has put its forces about 12 miles outside the city’s center.

“We don’t have a goal to grab Sumy,” Putin said. “But I don’t exclude it in principle.”

Putin’s insistence on maintaining the offensive in Ukraine has come at a diplomatic cost. President Donald Trump’s election last year gave Russia hope that it could restore economic and diplomatic ties with the United States while continuing to wage war in Ukraine, but Trump has become impatient with the Russia’s insistence on continuing the war.

The Russian president made clear he had no intentions of soon ending the war. But it was less clear whether Putin, whose comments came in response to a question about his military’s ultimate goals in Ukraine, was suggesting that Russia would annex additional territory beyond the four Ukraine regions that it has already declared are officially part of Russia.

In peace talks, the Kremlin has insisted on formal recognition of sovereignty over those regions.

The New York Times contributed to this report.