Russia Blasts Kyiv With 519 Drones, 40 Missiles Before Zelenskyy Meets Trump
Ukraine came under one of its heaviest aerial assaults in months early Shabbos, as Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones against Kyiv and surrounding areas just a day before scheduled talks between Ukraine and the United States, Ukrainian authorities said.
Explosions echoed across the capital for hours as ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles struck multiple parts of the city beginning in the early morning hours of Shabbos and continuing into daylight. One person was killed and at least 27 others were wounded, according to officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched an enormous overnight assault, firing nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, with energy facilities and civilian infrastructure among the primary targets.
“If Russia turns even the X-mas and New Year period into a time of destroyed homes and burned apartments, of ruined power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly strong steps,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, urging the United States and Europe to intensify pressure on Moscow.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed it carried out what it described as a “massive strike” overnight using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” along with drones. The ministry said the targets included energy infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s military and defense industries, framing the attack as retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on what it called “civilian objects” inside Russia.
Earlier on Shabbos, the ministry also claimed Russian air defenses intercepted seven Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar and Adygeya regions.
Ukraine’s air force later said Russia actually deployed 519 drones and 40 missiles in the attack, with Kyiv’s energy and civilian infrastructure bearing the brunt. Zelenskyy said several districts were left without electricity or heating as a result.
“Today Russia demonstrated how it responds to peace talks between Ukraine and the United States on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. They carried out massive attacks on Ukraine precisely as we move toward peace negotiations,” Zelenskyy said in an audio message to reporters while traveling. “That is Russia’s response.”
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said more than 10 residential buildings were damaged, and emergency crews were working to rescue people trapped beneath collapsed structures.
One Kyiv resident, Olena Karpenko, 52, described hearing a man die in the blaze caused by the strikes. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said through tears.
Karpenko said the attack began with an explosion at a nearby thermal power plant, followed by a more powerful blast that rattled her windows before her own building was hit. “I saw how the apartment was burning, there was a fire and we heard a man’s screams, begging for help,” she said.
Kyiv Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said seven locations across the capital were struck and that two children were among the wounded. He said a body was recovered from beneath the rubble of one damaged building.
“In fact, the entire center of Kyiv was under attack by drones,” Tkachenko said, adding that the assault was meant to signal that Russia “it is raising the stakes in this war.”
Fires broke out in multiple residential towers, including an 18-story building in the Dnipro district and a 24-story building in Darnytsia. Additional blazes erupted in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivskyi districts as emergency crews rushed to contain the damage.
In the broader Kyiv region, Ukraine’s Emergency Service reported strikes on industrial and residential sites. In the Vyshhorod area, rescue teams pulled one person alive from the ruins of a destroyed home.
The attacks also triggered heightened alert levels in neighboring Poland. Polish armed forces scrambled fighter jets and temporarily shut down airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the Ukrainian border, officials said on X. Authorities later said Polish airspace was not violated, and the civil aviation authority Pansa confirmed airport operations had resumed. It remained unclear why the alert was triggered, given that the Russian strikes were concentrated on Kyiv, far from Poland’s border.
Zelenskyy, who was traveling to Florida to meet with President Donald Trump on Sunday, told reporters he aimed to minimize unresolved issues in their discussions while maintaining Ukraine’s core positions.
“I am confident there are compromise proposals — we know the Americans — and, obviously, our enemy also always has its own goals, which we know well,” he said in an audio note shared via a WhatsApp chat with journalists.
He said security guarantees would be his top priority, noting US commitments to provide protections similar to NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack on one member triggers a collective military response, though details remain unresolved.
Zelenskyy said the most sensitive topics would involve territory, including the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, stressing that Ukraine would never recognize occupied land as Russian. “But the most important issue I want to stress today is security guarantees. Beyond territorial issues and the ZNPP (nuclear plant), security guarantees are critically important for us,” he said.
Zelenskyy also said he plans to brief European leaders in online meetings following his talks with Trump.
{Matzav.com}