Russia has launched its largest barrage of drones and missiles in a month across Ukraine, killing at least three people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, amid US-led efforts to strike a peace deal.
In total, Moscow launched around 36 missiles and almost 600 drones at Ukraine on Friday night into Saturday, Zelensky said. Large parts of the capital, Kyiv, are without power.
“The main targets of the attack were energy infrastructure and civilian facilities, with extensive damage and fires in residential buildings. We currently have reports of dozens injured and three killed.”
The strikes hit the homes of ordinary Ukrainians as well as the country’s energy grid and critical infrastructure, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Telegram on Saturday morning, calling it “a difficult night… particularly in Kyiv.”
Two people, including a 42-year-old man, were killed in the capital and 15 were wounded, including a child, local authorities and police said. It is unclear at this stage where the third person was killed.
Kyiv was under an air raid alert for more than ten hours overnight into Saturday, CNN reporters in the city said, with drones and loud explosions audible in the skies overhead.
Photos published by Reuters showed emergency services personnel working to enter a multi-story building in Kyiv. Dozens of windows were shattered, and a large part of the facade appeared scorched.
Poland scrambled military jets and air defense systems in response to the attack, Warsaw’s armed forces said, adding “these actions are of a preventative nature.”
Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russian attacks overnight left more than 600,000 people without power.
“As a result of the attack, more than 500,000 consumers in Kyiv, more than 100,000 in the Kyiv region and almost 8,000 in the Kharkiv region were left without electricity in the morning,” the ministry said.
The attack comes with a US team expected to visit Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week on the Trump administration’s plan for peace.
An initial draft reflected Russian demands long seen as red lines in Ukraine but was then heavily revised at a meeting last weekend between the Ukrainians and a US delegation in Geneva.
Putin had said that the original proposal could “form the basis for future agreements” but also said a deal would only be possible if Ukraine withdrew from some areas in eastern Ukraine it currently holds.
“If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this through military means,” the Russian leader added.
