KYIV (AFP) — Russian and Ukrainian strikes killed two people on either side of the border on Friday, officials announced, while two foreign-flagged cargo ships loaded with grain were hit in southern Ukraine.

The overnight attacks came as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced negotiators from Kyiv were travelling to the United States with the aim of rebooting trilateral talks with Russia.

The head of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region said Russian attacks there had killed a 30-year-old woman and wounded a boy, 10, and a man, 48.

The Ukrainian air force announced that Russia had attacked the country with 156 drones and that air defense systems had downed 133 of them.

The Russian attack targeted several regions including the southern port city of Odesa where officials said two cargo ships loaded with grain had been damaged, and that two crew members were wounded.

A Ukrainian drone strike meanwhile killed one man in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the governor announced on Telegram.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine, brokered and pushed by the US, have been derailed by the US-Israeli war with Iran that broke out last month.