Russian forces hit Ukraine’s capital and key energy facilities with a massive airstrike on the eve of talks between Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump aimed at nailing down a plan to end Moscow’s war.
Ukraine’s president stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, en route to the US, to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Together, the pair will hold a video call with European leaders, Zelenskiy said earlier on Saturday. He reiterated Ukraine’s need for legally binding security guarantees from allies if hostilities are brought to an end.
More than 500 drones and 40 missiles — including Kinzhal hypersonic weapons — were launched in a barrage that started overnight and continued throughout the day on Saturday, hitting civilian targets and energy facilities. Air raid sirens have sounded in Kyiv for over 16 hours.
“Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘Shaheds’ speak for them,” Zelenskiy said.
The barrage killed one person in Kyiv and injured at least 32, disrupted power and water supplies, and sparked fires across several districts. About one-third of the city of over 3 million residents was left without heating with temperatures hovering around freezing.
More than 600,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region were without electricity around midday Saturday, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Telegram. “Russians are pursuing a campaign built on instilling exhaustion, cold, and fear,” she added.
The Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine also saw power cuts, Ukraine’s energy ministry said. In late afternoon, Ukraine’s air force command said it had identified a missile headed toward Myrhorod in central Ukraine.
Russia attacked gas extraction and heating producing facilities operated by Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-run energy company, CEO Sergii Koretskyi said on Facebook. “Obviously, these attacks are synchronized with cold,” he said.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a post on Telegram that its strikes “targeted energy infrastructure used by Ukraine’s armed forces as well as defense industry facilities,” and that “all targets were hit.”
As the attack was unfolding, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command post of Russia’s forces fighting in Ukraine early morning and was briefed on the situation at the front, the Kremlin announced late Saturday. The Russian leader has developed a pattern of visiting military command posts ahead of key phases of diplomatic talks, a move seen as used to underscore battlefield momentum for the U.S.
This time, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin that his troops are advancing in multiple directions, with several locations taken, including Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, and Dmitrov in the Donetsk region.
Those claims could not be independently verified, and Ukraine has not yet commented.
Given the pace of the advance, Russia has no interest in Ukrainian forces withdrawing from their current positions, Putin said. “If the authorities in Kyiv do not wish to resolve the matter peacefully, we will achieve all the objectives facing us in the course of the special military operation by military means,” he said.
