Russia launches deadly strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv ahead of day two of peace talks | Ukraine
Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack early Saturday targeting Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kiev and Kharkiv, as U.S., Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates for the second day of trilateral peace talks.
While there were widespread heat, water and power outages in Kiev and other cities following Russia’s attacks on the energy infrastructure, authorities in Kiev said that one person died and at least 15 people were injured in the attacks that continued until the morning.
The Russian attacks, which come amid the first tripartite talks on the war, come as Russia continues to insist it must control Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, underscoring doubts that Moscow is serious about peace.
“It is currently known that one person died and four people were injured,” Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a social media post, adding that three of the injured were hospitalized.
He said heat and water services were disrupted in some parts of the capital, and fire broke out in many buildings hit by drone debris.
The strikes come amid a worsening mid-winter energy crisis focused on the capital, where many people have been left without heat and electricity for long periods.
On Friday, Klitschko said that approximately 1,940 residences in the capital remained unheated after the renewed attacks, “and this may not be the most difficult moment yet.”
According to Klitschko’s office, 600,000 residents temporarily left the city during the power crisis in January, which plunged blocks across the city into darkness.
Timur Tkachenko, the head of Kiev’s military administration, reported strikes in at least four regions. Among the damaged buildings was a medical facility.
Kiev has already suffered two mass night attacks this year, knocking out electricity and heating in hundreds of residential buildings. As overnight temperatures dropped to –13C (9F), emergency workers were still trying to restore services to residents.
In frequently targeted Kharkiv, 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones hit several areas in two and a half hours, injuring at least 14 people.
Writing on Telegram, Terekhov said drones hit a dormitory for displaced persons, a hospital and a maternity hospital.
The latest attacks occurred after negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States wrapped up the first of two days of peace talks aimed at finding a solution to the nearly four-year war.
