Russian forces pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure before a new round of peace talks, killing three energy workers and leaving tens of thousands of people without power and heat, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S.-backed trilateral talks involving Kyiv and Moscow in Geneva are occurring just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its much smaller neighbour, on Feb. 24. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been devastated by the conflict.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the overnight strikes on 12 Ukrainian regions that came under attack hours before the start of talks.
“It was a combined strike, specially calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, calling for diplomacy to be backed by “justice and strength.”
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has frequently carried out attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities this winter that have knocked out power and heating.
Ukraine’s deputy energy minister said the three workers were killed when a Russian drone struck their car near the Sloviansk power plant, in a front-line area which Moscow wants Kyiv to cede in exchange for peace.
Power infrastructure supplying Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea port city of Odesa suffered “incredibly serious” damage, said private energy company DTEK.
“Repairs will take a long time to restore the equipment to working order,” the company said on social media.
Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said homes in five regions had suffered power cuts as a result of the strikes and also reported disruptions to heating supply in Odesa and Sumy, a regional capital in northern Ukraine near the Russian border.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nearly 400 drones and 29 missiles. Most were downed, but 13 targets in Ukraine were hit, it added.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said Tuesday that it had struck the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region. The military added in a statement that the strike on the refinery, which it described as one of the largest oil facilities in southern Russia, had sparked a fire.
Donetsk dispute
Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia gathered in Geneva on Tuesday for two days of U.S.-mediated peace talks that will focus on the main sticking point of land.
U.S. President Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was being asked ‘too often’ to make concessions ahead of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Geneva next week with Russia.
Zelenskyy called for Kyiv’s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a “real and just” peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.
Trump pointed to Ukraine when asked by reporters what he was expecting from the talks in Geneva, which will follow a morning of negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials at a different venue in the Swiss lakeside city.
“Well, we have big talks,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”
Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede the remaining 20 per cent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture — something Kyiv refuses to do.
“This time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones. The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
Nuclear plant a significant issue
Russia occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion.
The Kremlin said the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin.
However, the fact that Ukrainian negotiators have accused Medinsky in the past of lecturing them about history as an excuse for Russia’s invasion has further lowered expectations for any significant breakthrough in Geneva.
Denys Vasyliev lives in the Ukrainian city that is also home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control since it invaded Ukraine. He says he talks to his family about the ‘worst scenarios’ and has procured safety equipment, but says they also focus on the ‘best scenario’ in order to stay positive.
Russian military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov will also take part in the talks, while Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will be part of a separate working group on economic issues.
Kyiv’s delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov. Senior presidential aide Sergiy Kyslytsya will also be present.
As well as land, Russia and Ukraine also remain far apart on issues such as who should control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the possible role of Western troops in postwar Ukraine.
The venue has switched to Geneva after Abu Dhabi hosted two rounds of talks so far this year.
It is expected that the U.S. delegation will be led by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy for foreign talks in his second administration, as well as Jared Kushner, a first-term White House adviser who is Trump’s son-in-law.
