Russian strikes kill 1, injure dozens in Ukraine ahead of Trump-Zelenskyy meeting

Russia attacked the capital of Ukraine with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, killing one person and wounding 27 others, a day before talks between Ukraine and the US, local authorities said.

Explosions rumbled through Kyiv for hours as missiles and drones pounded the city. The attack started in the early hours of Saturday and continued until dawn.

This attack happened as the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for more talks in an effort to end the nearly 4-year-old war. Zelenskyy said they plan to discuss issues including security guarantees and local issues in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones, on energy infrastructure facilities “used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” and “complex enterprises of the Ukrainian military.”

The ministry said the strike came after Ukraine attacked “civilian objects” in Russia.

Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said its air defense shot down seven Ukrainian drones in the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight.

Poland hijacked warplanes and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attack, the country’s military said on X. There is no violation of Polish aviation, it said. Pansa airport chief said the two airports have started operations. It is not clear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attack focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.

Russia is targeting Ukraine with about 500 drones and 40 missiles of various types, Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. The main targets were energy and public infrastructure in Kyiv, he said. In some regions of the region there is none electricity or heating because of the attack, he added.

“There have been many questions these days. Where is Russia’s response to the proposals to end the war, made by the United States and the world?” Zelenskyy said. “The Russian representatives hold long talks, in fact ‘Kinzal’ and ‘Shahds’ speak for them.”

“His cry is in my ears”

There were more than 10 residential buildings destroyed in the attack, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, in a Telegram post. People were being pulled out from under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Olena Karpenko, 52, heard a man burn to death in this incident. “His cries are still in my ears, I can’t believe it,” he said while crying.

Karpenko said they heard a sudden explosion at a nearby thermal power plant, followed by a powerful explosion that shook the windows of her home. Then came the beating of his building.

“I saw how the apartment was on fire, and we heard a man crying for help,” he said.

Two children are among the injured in this incident, which affected seven places in Kyiv, said the head of the city’s health department, Tymur Tkachenko, in a statement on Telegram. A body was found under the rubble of one of the destroyed buildings, said Klymenko.

A fire broke out in an 18-storey building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency services rushed to the scene to stop the flames.

A 24-story building in Darnytsia district was also affected, Tkachenko said, and other fires broke out in Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.

In the wider Kyiv region, strikes hit industrial buildings and residential areas, according to the Emergency Service of Ukraine. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency services rescued one person who was found under the rubble of a collapsed house.