Russia attacked Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones yesterday, ahead of what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said would be a crucial meeting with US President Donald Trump to work out a plan to end nearly four years of war.
Zelenskiy cast the vast attack, which he said involved about 500 drones and 40 missiles and which knocked out power and heat in parts of the capital, as Russia’s response to the ongoing peace efforts brokered by Washington.
The Ukrainian leader has said today’s talks in Florida would focus on security guarantees and territorial control once fighting ends in Europe’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War, started by Russia’s 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.
The attack continued throughout the morning, with a nearly 10-hour air raid alert for the capital. Authorities said two people were killed in Kyiv and the surrounding region, while at least 46 people were wounded, including two children.
“Today, Russia demonstrated how it responds to peaceful negotiations between Ukraine and the US to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelenskiy told reporters.
In Russia, air defence forces shot down eight drones headed for Moscow, the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said yesterday.
Explosions echoed across Kyiv from the early hours yesterday as Ukraine’s air defence units went into action.
The air force said Russian drones were targeting the capital and regions in the northeast and south.
State grid operator Ukrenergo said energy facilities across Ukraine were struck, and emergency power cuts had been implemented across the capital.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said the attack had left more than a million households in and around Kyiv without power, 750,000 of which remained disconnected by the afternoon.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said more than 40 per cent of residential buildings in Kyiv were left without heat as temperatures hovered around 0C yesterday.
On the way to meeting Trump in Florida, Zelenskiy stopped in Canada’s Halifax to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney, after which they planned to hold a call with European leaders.
In a brief statement with Zelenskiy by his side, Carney noted that peace ‘requires a willing Russia’.
“The barbarism that we saw overnight – the attack on Kyiv – shows just how important it is that we stand with Ukraine in this difficult time,” he said, announcing 2.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.83bn) in additional economic aid to Ukraine.
Territory and the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remain the main diplomatic stumbling blocks, though Zelenskiy told journalists in Kyiv on Friday that a 20-point draft document – the cornerstone of a US push to clinch a peace deal – is 90pc complete.
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