Russia strikes Ukraine’s capital and kills at least 1 person a day before Zelenskyy-Trump meeting
Explosions occurred throughout Kiev as the attack started early in the morning and continued for hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on ending the nearly four-year war. Zelenskyy told reporters that he and Trump plan to discuss many issues, including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This attack is Russia’s response to our peace efforts. This really shows that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not want peace,” Zelenskyy said in a statement after meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. he said. Carney announced $1.8 billion worth of economic aid to Ukraine, which will help provide financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for reconstruction and development.
“The barbarism we saw overnight, the attack on Kiev, shows how important it is that we stand with Ukraine in this difficult time,” Carney said.
Apartment buildings were hit. The Russian Ministry of Defense said it carried out a “massive attack” overnight using “long-range, precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and unmanned aerial vehicles. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukrainian forces and military-industrial organizations.
However, many residential buildings were hit. The ministry said the attack was in response to Ukrainian attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones overnight over Russia’s Krasnodar and Adygea regions. On Saturday afternoon, the ministry said another 147 drones were shot down in parts of Russia.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards” the Russian capital on Saturday. It reported no damage or casualties. It was not immediately clear whether they were included in the Defense Department’s count.
Russia demands territorial gains In what could be seen as an effort to further increase pressure on Ukraine ahead of the Zelenskyy-Trump talks, the Kremlin released a video on Saturday night of Putin in military fatigues receiving reports from senior military officials at an unidentified military command post.
Russian General Staff Chief General Valery Gerasimov informed Putin that Russian troops have taken full control of Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region – Russia uses the old Soviet name for the city Dimitrov – the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region and several other settlements.
“If the Kiev authorities do not want to end the matter peacefully, we will achieve all the goals we have in the special military operation by military means,” Putin said.
The Ukrainian General Staff rejected these allegations as “not supported by facts.” It was stated that the situation in Huliaipole was difficult, but the defense operation in the city continued. The situation in Myrnohrad remains “challenging”.
“The senior political leadership of the aggressor state has once again resorted to spreading unfounded claims about the significant ‘successes’ of the Russian army on the battlefield,” the General Staff said in an online statement. he said.
Poland is on alert. Poland’s armed forces command said in a statement on social media that Poland activated its warplanes during Russia’s attacks and closed the airports in Lublin and Rzeszow, near the Ukrainian border, for several hours. It was stated that Polish airspace was not violated.
Civil aviation authority Pansa later said the airports were back in operation. While Russia’s attacks were focused on Kiev, far from the border, it was not clear what caused the alarm in Poland.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles. Zelenskyy said that the main target is energy and civil infrastructure in Kiev. He said that there was no electricity or heating in some districts of the region due to the attacks.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a statement on social media that more than 10 residences were damaged.
Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard about a man being burned to death. “I can still hear her screaming. I can’t believe it,” she said, crying.
Karpenko said they heard an explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, and then a stronger explosion shook the windows of his house. Then a strike came to his building.
Head of the Kiev Military Administration, Timur Tkachenko, said in a statement on social media that two children were among those injured in the attack at seven points in the capital.
He said a body was found under the rubble of a damaged building. It was not immediately clear whether this was the man who burned to death.
A fire broke out in an 18-storey residential building in the Dnipro region and emergency teams took action to control the flames. A 24-storey residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, and more fires broke out in Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts, Tkachenko said.
According to the Ukrainian Emergency Service, strikes hit industrial and residential buildings in the large area of Kiev. In the Vyshhorod region, emergency crews rescued a person who was under the rubble of a collapsed house.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said in a statement on X on Saturday evening that the Russian attack caused “extensive power outages” in Kiev, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity.
Prioritizing security guarantees, Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were “as few unresolved issues as possible” in talks with Trump, while respecting Ukraine’s red lines.
Zelenskyy, speaking with a voice note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. He said that in the draft peace plan, the United States had committed to providing guarantees similar to Article 5 of the NATO alliance, meaning that an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the United States and its allies.
However, important details need to be resolved through a bilateral agreement.
Regional concessions will be the most sensitive among the issues the two leaders will discuss.
