Russian attack pummels Kyiv as Zelensky prepares to meet Trump

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, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, as residents face freezing temperatures and frost.

The assault, which also triggered power cuts throughout Kyiv, comes just one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss the latest draft of a peace plan to end the war — a document that Russia has not signaled it is prepared to sign.

Zelensky told journalists Saturday that he was en route to Canada, where he would meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney and speak via videoconference with European leaders ahead of the Trump meeting.

The key issues Trump and Zelensky are expected to discuss include territorial control, future U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, and investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

“Putin deliberately ordered a massive bombing of residential areas and critical infrastructure of Kyiv just as leaders of Ukraine and the US are preparing to meet and advance peace,” Sybiha wrote on X. “ … Putin must realize that further rejection of peace will come at a very heavy price for him and his regime.”

Zelensky pleaded for European partners to provide new air defense systems to Ukraine and described the Russian attacks as a reaction to “peaceful negotiations between Ukraine and the United States regarding ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

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. Footage showed vehicles on fire on a major road in Kyiv.

At least one person was killed and 28 people wounded in Kyiv, including two children, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. One woman was killed in the nearby city of Bila Tserkva. The assault lasted 10 hours — and air raid sirens blared again throughout the afternoon as more drones closed in on Kyiv’s airspace. The attacks followed others elsewhere in Ukraine in recent days, including a glide-bomb strike 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 the day. New emergency outages were implemented Saturday in response to the latest attack.

The Kremlin refused Ukraine’s request for a Christmas ceasefire. Fierce battles continue across the front line in the country’s east and south. The Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of Russian soldiers fighting for Ukraine, announced Saturday that its commander, Denis Kapustin, was killed in a Russian drone attack in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

“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 Saturday on Telegram. “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 on to 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% complete.

The U.S. has pressured Ukraine to organize elections, including a presidential vote, which has been postponed since last year because of martial law, which has been in place throughout the war. Putin, meanwhile, changed Russia’s constitution to extend his stay in office indefinitely. Zelensky said recently that he would urge lawmakers to discuss how best to organize a presidential election but has insisted that Ukraine will require security guarantees to host any vote.

Kyiv and European partners have repeatedly warned that Russia will attempt to disrupt any vote in Ukraine. Some elements of the latest draft peace plan, especially those regarding territory, would require a referendum in Ukraine, which also would face challenges with millions of people displaced or serving on the front line.

“I am not clinging to the chair; we are ready for this,” Zelensky said Saturday of elections. But he insisted that the legal and security framework be established before any vote. “After today’s strikes — again, I repeat, because this happens daily, because Russia attacks us every day — the sky must be safe, and security ensured throughout our territory, at least for the duration of the elections or a referendum.”

Any U.S. security guarantees, Zelensky said, will depend on Trump — “what he is ready to give, when he is ready to give it, for what term. Without a doubt, I will be grateful to him if his decision aligns with our wishes.”

Ukraine continues to refuse to cede territory to Russia but has signaled openness to establishing a demilitarized zone in the Donbas region if Russia 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 could 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.”