Ukraine has reported the largest Russian aerial assault so far this year, just hours after representatives from Kyiv, Moscow and Washington held their first known trilateral talks since the war began.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia launched a massive overnight barrage of drones and missiles early on Saturday, prompting air defenses across the country, including in the capital, Kyiv.
Journalists in the city reported hearing multiple explosions as the strikes unfolded.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least one person was killed and four others injured. He added that falling debris sparked fires and damaged residential buildings, leaving nearly 6,000 apartment blocks without heating and parts of the city cut off from water supplies. Temperatures in Kyiv dropped to about minus 12 degrees Celsius overnight.
Ukraine’s air force said the attack also targeted other regions, including the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported that a maternity hospital and a dormitory housing displaced people were damaged in the strikes, with at least 19 people wounded, including a child.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched more than 370 drones and 21 missiles during the overnight assault, with strikes also reported in Sumy and Chernihiv regions. He said the attacks were heavily focused on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which he described as critical during the winter months.
The bombardment came between two rounds of trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States, held behind closed doors in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Russian state media reported that a second day of talks was underway on Saturday.
According to Russia’s TASS news agency, territorial issues remain the central sticking point in the negotiations. Moscow has reiterated its demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a condition Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.
The Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has been a focal point of the conflict since 2014 and remains strategically significant for Ukraine’s defense and industrial capacity.
Delegations at the Abu Dhabi talks include senior military and intelligence officials from Russia, top diplomats and security officials from Ukraine, and US representatives led by President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, alongside Jared Kushner and White House adviser Josh Gruenbaum.
Following Friday’s session, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the discussions focused on achieving a “dignified and lasting peace” and thanked the United States for its mediation. He confirmed that further meetings were scheduled.
President Zelensky urged caution, saying it was too early to draw conclusions from the talks. “We will see how the talks go and what the results will be,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s position had been clearly defined for its delegation.
Nearly four years into the full-scale invasion, Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory, including most of Luhansk and parts of Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
CNN.
