Russia launched a large-scale overnight assault on Kyiv using ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least one person and injuring 27, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday, as diplomatic talks between Ukraine and the United States loomed.
Per Associated Press, the barrage began in the early morning hours and stretched on for several hours, with explosions heard across the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 519 drones and 40 missiles, with Kyiv’s energy systems and civilian infrastructure identified as the primary targets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, said the attack underscored Moscow’s intentions ahead of discussions aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
“This attack is Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want peace,” Zelenskyy said while traveling through Canada, where he met Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Russia launched a large-scale overnight assault on Kyiv using ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least one person and injuring 27, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday, as diplomatic talks between Ukraine and the United States loomed.
Per Associated Press, the barrage began in the early morning hours and stretched on for several hours, with explosions heard across the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 519 drones and 40 missiles, with Kyiv’s energy systems and civilian infrastructure identified as the primary targets.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, said the attack underscored Moscow’s intentions ahead of discussions aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
“This attack is Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want peace,” Zelenskyy said while traveling through Canada, where he met Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
During the visit, Carney announced $1.8 billion in economic assistance for Ukraine, designed to help unlock reconstruction and development financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“The barbarism that we saw overnight, the attack of Kyiv, shows just how important that we stand with Ukraine during this difficult time,” Carney said.
Residential areas struck
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed conducting what it called a “massive strike” using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” as well as drones. It said the operation targeted energy facilities and military-industrial sites used by Ukraine’s armed forces.
Ukrainian officials, however, reported extensive damage to civilian housing. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said more than 10 residential buildings were damaged across the capital.
Seven locations in Kyiv were hit, according to the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, who said two children were among the wounded. A body was recovered from beneath the rubble of one destroyed building, though authorities said it was not immediately clear whether it belonged to a man who was reported to have burned to death during the attack.
Olena Karpenko, 52, described hearing his screams. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said, breaking down in tears.
Karpenko said an initial explosion struck a nearby thermal power plant, followed by a more powerful blast that shattered windows before her apartment building was hit.
Fires erupted in multiple districts, including a blaze in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district and damage to a 24-story building in the Darnytsia district. Additional fires were reported in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivskyi districts.
In the surrounding Kyiv region, strikes damaged industrial and residential sites. Ukraine’s Emergency Service said one person was rescued alive from beneath the rubble of a destroyed home in the Vyshhorod area.
Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, DTEK, said the assault caused “extensive power outages” in Kyiv, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity.
Russia cites retaliation, claims advances
The Russian Defense Ministry said the overnight strikes were carried out in response to what it described as Ukrainian attacks on “civilian objects” inside Russia. Earlier Saturday, the ministry said Russian air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar and Adygeya regions, followed by another 147 drones intercepted later in the day across multiple regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards” the Russian capital. He reported no casualties or damage and did not clarify whether those interceptions were included in the Defense Ministry’s totals.
Later Saturday night, the Kremlin released video footage showing President Vladimir Putin in military fatigues receiving briefings from senior commanders at an undisclosed command post.
Russia’s General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, told Putin that Russian forces had taken full control of Myrnohrad in Ukraine’s Donetsk region — referred to by its Soviet-era name, Dimitrov — as well as the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the claims. Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s General Staff reported ongoing Russian attempts “to push Ukrainian defenders from their positions” in several areas, including Myrnohrad, while Ukrainian forces repelled “enemy attempts to advance” near Huliaipole and Bilohiria.
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.”
Regional security response
Poland temporarily scrambled fighter jets and suspended operations at airports in Lublin and Rzeszow, near the Ukrainian border, during the Russian assault, according to the Polish armed forces command. Officials said Polish airspace was not violated, and civil aviation authority Pansa later announced that airport operations had resumed.
Authorities did not explain why the alert was triggered, given that the main strikes were concentrated on Kyiv, far from Poland’s border.
Focus on upcoming talks
Zelenskyy said he intends to minimize unresolved issues ahead of his meeting with Trump while maintaining Ukraine’s core positions.
Speaking in an audio message shared with journalists via WhatsApp, he said security guarantees would be his top priority. Zelenskyy has previously said a draft peace framework includes U.S. commitments resembling NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack would prompt a collective military response by allies.
Those provisions, he said, still require clarification through a bilateral agreement.
Territorial issues remain the most contentious, including the status of the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never recognize Russian sovereignty over any occupied territory “under any circumstances.”
THE THIRD FORCE
