KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukraine Saturday night, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a “meaningful call” with U.S. officials involved in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida to end the nearly four-year war.
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in a wide-ranging overnight attack on Ukraine that raised air raid alarms across the country and came as Ukraine celebrated 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, adding that the strikes hit 29 targets.
At least eight people were injured as a result of the terrorist attacks, Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said.
Among them, at least three people were injured in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings have been reported as far away as western Ukraine, in the Lviv region.
The nuclear power plant is temporarily de-energized
Russia carried out a “massive missile attack from drones” on power plants and other energy infrastructure in several regions of Ukraine, Ukraine’s national energy operator Ukrenergo wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's Zaporozhye nuclear power plant temporarily lost all external power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, citing Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The plant is located in territory that has been under Russian control since the beginning of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. not in usebut it needs reliable energy to cool the six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that the main targets of the attacks were energy facilities, and also noted that the railway station in the city of Fastov, located in the Kyiv region, was “burnt down” by a drone strike.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight on Saturday.
Russian news channel Telegram Astra reported that Ukraine struck Russia's Ryazan oil refinery, sharing footage showing a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising from the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
Later, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that Ukrainian troops attacked the oil refinery. The governor of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, said that the drone attack damaged a residential building and that drone debris fell on the territory of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the oil refinery.
Months Ukrainian drones carry out long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries sought to deprive Moscow oil export revenues he needs to continue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to disable the Ukrainian energy system and deprived civilians of access to heat, light and running water for the fourth winter in a row, which Ukrainian officials call a cold “weapon.”
Slow progress in agreeing on a security framework
The latest wave of attacks occurred in the USA President Donald Trump Advisers and Ukrainian officials said they would meet for a third day of talks on Saturday in Florida after making progress in finding an agreement on the security framework for a post-war Ukraine.
On Saturday, Zelensky said U.S. and Ukrainian officials involved in the talks had provided him with updated information by phone.
“Ukraine is determined to continue to work in good faith with the American side to truly achieve peace,” Zelensky wrote on social networks.
Following Friday's talks, both sides also soberly assessed that any “real progress towards any agreement” will ultimately depend “on Russia's willingness to demonstrate a serious commitment to long-term peace.”
Statement by the US Special Envoy Steve WitkoffTrump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andrey Gnatov, arrived after their second day meeting on Friday. They outlined only the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-brokered end to the conflict. almost four years of war.
Separately, officials said the leaders of Britain, France and Germany would attend a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
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