Putin rejects a meeting with Zelensky as strikes hit ships and a Romanian port

Russian president Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's proposal for a face-to-face meeting. He said he saw no point in it except for Ukraine to halt the advance of Russian forces. The rejection was a diplomatic answer, not a pause in attacks.

Five Azerbaijani crew members were killed and three injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on two commercial vessels in Taganrog Bay in Russia's Rostov Oblast. A Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessel exploded in the Port of Constanta in Romania. The sea incidents reached a Russian bay and a NATO port in the same news cycle.

Jihadist insurgents attacked a Nigerian military base in Mandaragirau in Borno State and killed five soldiers. In Mali, an al-Qaeda-linked group released a propaganda video of April 25 attacks on an army camp and Sevare airport in Mopti. Those African items were separate from the Ukraine talks.

Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri rejected the ceasefire deal with Israel, saying it was not complete and did not require Israeli withdrawal from the south at the same time as Hezbollah stepped back. President Joseph Aoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam criticized Iran for the rejection and said Lebanon should not be a bargaining chip in United States-Iran talks. At least five people, including a paramedic, were killed in strikes in Nabatieh district.

At least two people were killed and 11 injured in Israeli strikes in Beirut that Israel said targeted Hezbollah infrastructure. A Serbian soldier was killed and two others wounded in shelling of a UNIFIL base near Marjayoun. An Israeli armored officer was also killed in southern Lebanon, and at least ten people, including three Lebanese soldiers, were killed in strikes on about 150 sites over two days.

The United States House passed legislation for a new batch of aid to Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia. China imposed travel bans on New Zealand MPs Ingrid Leary, Laura McClure, Simon O'Connor, and Duncan Webb after a Taiwan visit, and New Zealand restated its One China policy. Those were diplomatic moves around wars that were still producing daily death tolls.