In a dramatic escalation, Russia launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones at Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, early Saturday, leaving at least one dead and 27 injured. This aggressive move comes just ahead of a scheduled meeting between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump. The leaders plan to convene in Florida on Sunday to discuss ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict that has plagued Ukraine for nearly four years.
Saturday’s onslaught began in the early hours and persisted for several hours, with the sounds of explosions echoing throughout the city. Zelenskyy noted that key topics of his discussion with Trump would include security assurances and territorial disputes, specifically focusing on the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This latest assault is Russia’s response to our peace initiatives, clearly signaling that President Putin is not interested in peace,” Zelenskyy remarked during a stopover in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There, he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who pledged $1.8 billion in economic aid to Ukraine. This assistance is designed to facilitate financial support from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for Ukraine’s reconstruction and development.
Prime Minister Carney condemned the attack, stating, “The brutality witnessed overnight, with the assault on Kyiv, underscores the importance of our support for Ukraine in these trying times.”
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the overnight operation involved a “massive strike” employing “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” along with drones. The ministry claimed the strikes were aimed at disabling energy infrastructure and military-industrial sites utilized by Ukrainian forces.
Apartment buildings hit
The Russian Defense Ministry said that it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine’s forces and military-industrial enterprises.
But several residential buildings were struck.
The ministry said the strike was in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. On Saturday afternoon, the ministry said 147 more drones were shot down over a number of Russian regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards” the Russian capital on Saturday. He didn’t report any damage or casualties. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those were included in the Defense Ministry’s count.
Russia claims territorial gains
In what could be viewed as an effort to further ramp up pressure on Ukraine before the Zelenskyy-Trump talks, the Kremlin on Saturday night released a video of Putin in military fatigues receiving reports from top military officials in an unidentified military command post.
Russia’s General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin that the Russian troops have taken full control of Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region – Russia uses the old Soviet name of the city, Dimitrov – the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, and a few other settlements.
Putin said that “if Kyiv authorities are not willing to end the matter peacefully, we will achieve all the goals we have in the special military operation by military means.”
Ukraine’s General Staff rejected these claims as “not supported by facts.” It said that the situation in Huliaipole is “difficult, but the defensive operation in the city is ongoing.” In Myrnohrad, the situation remains “challenging.”
“The senior political leadership of the aggressor state has once again resorted to spreading false claims about significant ‘successes’ by the Russian army on the battlefield,” the General Staff said in an online statement.
Poland on alert
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on social media. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said.
Civil aviation authority Pansa later said the airports had resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he said.
Man burns to death
More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.
Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard a man as he burned to death. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said, weeping.
Karpenko said they heard a explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, followed by a stronger blast that shook the windows of her home. Then came the strike on her building.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which hit seven locations across the capital, the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on social media.
A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said. It wasn’t immediately clear if that person was the man who burned to death.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district, and emergency crews rushed to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said on X on Saturday evening that the Russian attack caused “extensive power outages” in Kyiv, saying that hundreds of thousands of customers remained without power.
Security guarantees prioritized
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.
Speaking by audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. He has said that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance’s Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies.
But key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.
Territorial concessions are the most sensitive of issues the two leaders will discuss.
Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed to this report.
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