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Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war.
The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.
Following talks that made progress on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov, came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday.
They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end the war.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off.
The ongoing talks are part of Trump’s intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Russia used 653 drones, 51 missiles overnight
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.
Investments are being made across Europe to shore up its defence capabilities in the face of increased Russian aggression and an uncertain defence alliance with the United States. Andrew Chang explores the steps Europe is taking to deter a possible Russian attack.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said. Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials.
Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.
Nuclear plant temporarily cut off from power
Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, citing its director general, Rafael Grossi.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.
Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but he did not mention the refinery.
Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Zelenskyy to meet European leaders Monday
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would travel to London on Monday to meet Zelenskyy, as well as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, to discuss the situation in Ukraine and ongoing negotiations under American mediation.
“Ukraine can count on our unwavering support. That is the whole point of the efforts we have undertaken as part of the Coalition of the Willing,” Macron said on social media platform X.
“We will continue these efforts alongside the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which there can be no robust and lasting peace. For what is at stake in Ukraine is also the security of Europe as a whole.”
