Russia unleashes massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine as diplomatic talks continue
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- Russia unleashed 653 drones and 51 missiles overnight at Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure, Ukraine said, as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators continued talks in Florida.
- Negotiators said real progress depends on Russia showing “serious commitment to long-term peace” after discussions reportedly made headway on postwar Ukraine’s security framework.
- The Russian assault damaged energy facilities and temporarily knocked out power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a “substantive phone call” with U.S. officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, while 29 locations were struck.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said. Among those, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.
Nuclear plant power cutoff
Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Zelensky said energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defenses had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.
Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing video appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the site. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
Ukraine’s army General Staff later said Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.
Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.
Diplomatic efforts
The latest round of attacks came as Trump administration and Ukrainian officials prepared to meet for a third day of talks Saturday in Florida, a day after reporting progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.
Zelensky said Saturday that he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
After Friday’s talks, the two sides, while signaling progress, also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately would depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statement came from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
Blann writes for the Associated Press.
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