Overnight and into the morning, Kyiv was filled with the sound of gunfire and blasts.
An intense Russian attack on Kyiv overnight shows Moscow “doesn’t want peace,”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday as he prepared for a fresh round of peace talks.
Zelensky made the comments en route to Florida, where he will meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss a new 20-point peace plan agreed upon by American and Ukrainian envoys.
The 10-hour missile and drone barrage directed at Ukraine’s capital killed two people and left 32 injured, local authorities said.
Damage to energy infrastructure left 40% of residential buildings in Kyiv and nearby districts without heating, according to Ukraine’s minister for development, Oleksiy Kuleba.
Russia’s defence ministry said long-range precision weapons were used to target energy facilities, which it claimed were “in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.”
Russia targeted energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv with nearly 500 drones.
Zelensky wrote on Telegram that Russia targeted energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv with nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles.
Pictures showed gaping holes in apartment buildings and homes on fire following the strikes.
The apartment block of BBC journalist Anastasiya Gribanova was struck, leaving some homes on the higher levels of the high-rise building in flames. Gribanova, who was in the building’s elevator at the time, escaped unharmed.
ReutersThe State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported the evacuation of 68 people from a retirement home in the eastern Darnytskyi district.
“Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality the Daggers [missiles] and Shaheds [drones] are speaking for them,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war.
“This sick activity can only be responded to with extreme steps. “America has this opportunity, Europe has it, and many of our partners have it,” he wrote, urging allies to show strength against Russian aggression.
The attack saw Poland, which shares a 530-kilometer-long (320-mile) border with western Ukraine, ready its fighter jets, ground-based air defence systems, and radar reconnaissance.
Later on Saturday morning, it concluded that there had been no violation of the country’s airspace.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed almost 200 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, including eight over Moscow.
Zelenskyy briefly met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday, ahead of his Florida meeting with Trump.
Speaking in Nova Scotia, Zelensky said the latest bombardment of Kyiv was “Russia’s answer [to] our peace efforts, and this really shows that Putin doesn’t want peace.”
Carney pledged $2.5 billion CAD (£1.35 billion) in economic assistance to Ukraine but agreed that “lasting peace” would require “a willing Russia.”
Zelenskyy then took a call with European leaders to discuss diplomatic “priorities” ahead of his meeting with Trump, adding that “strong positions are needed” to move forward with the plan.
Russia is likely to revisit security guarantees and territorial concessions for Ukraine, issues on which it has previously been unwilling to compromise.
Also on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command and control overseeing Moscow’s war, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Wearing army fatigues, Putin said if Kyiv did not want to resolve the conflict peacefully, Russia would accomplish its objectives militarily, according to comments in state media.
ReutersThe new 20-point draft is a revised version of an earlier 28-point plan, which was draughted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff but is widely seen as being too favourable to Russia.
The Ukrainian president has voiced optimism about the new draft, describing it as “a foundational document for ending the war,” but Trump warned that Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it” in an interview with Politico.
The draft reportedly includes security guarantees from the US, NATO and European allies for a co-ordinated military response if Russia were to invade Ukraine again.
Control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas has been a sticking point in talks so far, but now Zelenskyy has said a “free economic zone” could be an option.
Trump told Politico that he was expecting to see the new draft on Sunday.
“I think it’s going to go well with him. “I think it’s going to go well with Vladimir Putin,” Trump said in the interview, adding that he expects to speak with Russia’s president “soon.”
