By Gloria Ogbonna
Russia launched a large-scale overnight assault on Ukraine’s capital early Saturday, firing ballistic missiles and deploying waves of drones that killed at least one person and injured 27 others, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack came just one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump for high-stakes talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.
Explosions echoed across Kyiv in the early morning hours as air defenses engaged incoming threats. The bombardment continued for several hours, rattling neighborhoods across the capital and leaving widespread damage to residential buildings, energy infrastructure, and civilian facilities.
The timing of the attack added to its political weight. Zelenskyy was preparing to travel to Florida on Sunday to meet President Trump, where the two leaders are expected to discuss possible paths toward peace, including security guarantees for Ukraine and the highly sensitive issue of territorial control in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This attack is Russia’s answer to our peace efforts,” Zelenskyy said. “It clearly shows that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not want peace.”
Zelenskyy made the remarks after a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. During the visit, Carney announced $1.8 billion in economic assistance for Ukraine, aimed at unlocking additional financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to support reconstruction and long-term development.
“The barbarism we witnessed overnight—the attack on Kyiv—underscores why it is so important that we continue to stand with Ukraine during this extremely difficult time,” Carney said.
Apartment Buildings Struck
Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged carrying out what it described as a “massive strike,” claiming it used long-range, precision-guided weapons launched from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles and drones. The ministry said the strikes targeted energy infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces and military-industrial facilities.
However, Ukrainian officials reported that multiple residential buildings were hit, contradicting Moscow’s claims of strictly military targets. The Russian Defense Ministry said the assault was retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on what it described as “civilian objects” inside Russia.
Earlier Saturday, Russia said its air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar and Adygeya regions overnight. Later in the day, Moscow reported intercepting 147 additional drones over various Russian regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses destroyed more than 20 drones flying toward the Russian capital, though he reported no damage or casualties and did not clarify whether those drones were included in the Defense Ministry’s tally.
Kremlin Signals Escalation
In what appeared to be a show of strength ahead of the Zelenskyy–Trump talks, the Kremlin released video footage Saturday night showing Putin dressed in military fatigues at an unidentified command post, receiving briefings from senior military officials.
Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, claimed that Russian forces had taken full control of Myrnohrad in Ukraine’s Donetsk region—using the city’s Soviet-era name, Dimitrov—as well as the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, along with several smaller settlements.
Putin warned that if Ukrainian authorities refuse to resolve the conflict peacefully, Russia would pursue all its objectives through military means.
Ukraine’s General Staff firmly rejected Moscow’s claims, calling them “not supported by facts.” In a statement, it said fighting in Huliaipole remains intense but that Ukrainian defensive operations are ongoing. The situation in Myrnohrad was described as “challenging,” but not under full Russian control.
“The senior political leadership of the aggressor state has once again resorted to spreading false claims about major ‘successes’ by the Russian army,” the statement said.
Poland Scrambles Jets
The scale of the attack prompted concern beyond Ukraine’s borders. Poland scrambled fighter jets and temporarily closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow, near the Ukrainian border, for several hours, according to the Polish Armed Forces command. Authorities said there was no violation of Polish airspace, and the airports later resumed normal operations. It was not immediately clear what triggered the alert, as Kyiv lies far from Poland’s border.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 519 drones and 40 missiles in the overnight assault, with Kyiv being the primary target. Zelenskyy said energy and civilian infrastructure bore the brunt of the attack, leaving parts of the capital without electricity or heating.
Civilian Tragedy Unfolds
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said more than 10 residential buildings were damaged across Kyiv. Among the most harrowing accounts came from 52-year-old Olena Karpenko, who said she heard a man screaming as he burned to death during the attack.
“His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said through tears.
Karpenko described hearing an initial explosion near a thermal power plant, followed by a more powerful blast that shook her windows before her own building was struck.
Two children were among the wounded, according to Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko. He said seven locations across the city were hit, and one body was recovered from the rubble of a damaged building, though it was not immediately confirmed whether it belonged to the man Karpenko described.
Fires broke out in multiple districts, including an 18-story apartment building in the Dnipro district and a 24-story building in the Darnytsia district. Additional fires were reported in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivskyi neighborhoods as emergency crews raced to contain the blazes.
In the broader Kyiv region, strikes damaged both industrial and residential buildings. In the Vyshhorod area, rescuers pulled one person alive from beneath the rubble of a destroyed home.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said the attack caused extensive power outages, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers in Kyiv without electricity as of Saturday evening.
Peace Talks Loom
As he prepares for talks with President Trump, Zelenskyy said his goal is to leave “as few unresolved issues as possible” while safeguarding Ukraine’s core national interests. Speaking via an audio message to journalists, he said security guarantees would be his top priority.
Zelenskyy has previously stated that a draft peace framework includes U.S. security assurances modeled on NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective response from the United States and its allies. However, he acknowledged that key details would still need to be finalized through bilateral agreements.
Territorial concessions remain the most delicate and contentious issue expected to be discussed during the talks, as Ukraine continues to reject any settlement that would permanently cede occupied land.
Saturday’s deadly assault on Kyiv underscored just how high the stakes remain as diplomacy and warfare continue to collide.
Source ABC7
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