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 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 Ministry of Defence said long-range precision weapons were used to target energy facilities, which it claimed were being used “in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.
Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said that Russia directed almost 500 drones and 40 missiles towards Kyiv, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure.
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, was unharmed.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said that 68 people were evacuated 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,” Zelensky 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 really strong steps. America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity,” he wrote, urging allies to show strength against Russian aggression.
The attack saw Poland, which shares a 530km-long (320 miles) 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 had intercepted and destroyed almost 200 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, including eight over Moscow.
Zelensky 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 $2.5bn CAD (£1.35bn) in economic assistance to Ukraine, but agreed that “lasting peace” would require “a willing Russia”.
Zelensky 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.
Security guarantees and territorial concessions for Ukraine are likely to return to the table, issues on which Russia has previously been unwilling to compromise.
Also on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command and control centre overseeing Moscow’s war, according to the 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.
The new 20-point draft is a revised version of an earlier 28-point plan, which was drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, but widely seen as being too favourable to Russia.
The Ukrainian president has voiced optimism around the new draft, describing it as “a foundational document on 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 coordinated 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 Zelensky has said a “free economic zone” could be an option.
Trump told Politico he expected to see the new draft on Sunday.
“I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump said in the interview, adding that he expects to speak with Russia’s president “soon”.
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