KYIV — Russia launched a massive attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine early Saturday, targeting the Kyiv region’s energy grid and leaving one-third of the capital without heating, according to Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, as residents face subfreezing temperatures and frost.
The assault, which also triggered mass power cuts throughout Kyiv, comes just one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to arrive in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the latest draft of a peace plan to end the war — a document that Russia has not at all signaled it is prepared to sign.
By midmorning Saturday, Russia had launched nearly 500 Shahed drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, including ballistic Kinzhals, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. Several residential buildings were hit, destroying civilian apartments. Footage showed vehicles set ablaze on a major road in Kyiv. A search mission was underway at one building for a person who was trapped under rubble.
At least 28 people were wounded in Saturday’s attack, including two children, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. One woman was killed in the nearby city of Bila Tserkva. The assault, which lasted 10 hours, followed more strikes on other parts of Ukraine in recent days, including a glide bomb attack on Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, on Friday night that killed two civilians and wounded a 9-month old girl and her mother.
Russia has spent months targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a bid to damage the country’s economy and its people’s resolve in the coldest and darkest months of the year. In many parts of the country, including the capital, scheduled blackouts have been in place that leave civilians without power for much of each day. New emergency outages were implemented Saturday in response to the latest attack.
The Kremlin refused a Ukrainian request for a Christmas ceasefire.
“If Russia even turns the Christmas and New Year’s time into a time of destroyed buildings and burned apartments, ruined power stations, then this sick activity can only be responded to with really strong steps,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Saturday. “America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity. The main thing is to take advantage of it.”
A frenzied effort to draft a workable peace plan has been in the works since last month, when the White House threatened to cut all aid to Ukraine unless Kyiv signed onto a controversial 28-point proposal by Thanksgiving. That draft made major concessions to Russia, stirring outrage in Ukraine and Europe. Washington eventually backed down on the threat, and delegations from Kyiv and Washington have since met several times to draft a new version, which Zelensky said Friday numbers 20 points and is 90 percent complete.
He is expected to discuss some of the most sensitive topics, including territorial issues, with Trump on Sunday. Ukraine continues to refuse to cede territory to Russia but has signaled openness to establishing a demilitarized zone in the Donbas region if Russia also withdraws its troops — a proposal that Moscow, which remains adamant it wants to control all of Donbas, may refuse.
Ukraine also rejected an earlier suggestion that its military be restricted to 600,000 troops, which would make it incapable of fighting off any future Russian attack, instead writing into the latest draft that its peacetime military can be capped at 800,000 troops.
“Where is the Russian response to the proposals to end the war, which were put forward by the United States and the world?” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality, it’s the Kinzhals and Shaheds that speak for them. This is the real attitude of Putin and his entourage. They don’t want to end the war and are trying to use every opportunity to inflict more pain on Ukraine and increase their pressure on others in the world. And this means that the responsive pressure is not enough.”
Kostiantyn Khudov contributed to this report.
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