By KYIV, Dec. 27 (AfrikTimes) —Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine early Saturday, knocking out power and heating in parts of the capital ahead of what President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said would be a crucial meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending nearly four years of war.
Zelenskiy said the overnight barrage, involving about 500 drones and 40 missiles, was Moscow’s response to U.S.-brokered peace efforts. He said Sunday’s planned talks in Florida would focus on territorial control once the fighting ends in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, triggered by Russia’s full-scale military operation in Ukraine in 2022.
Air raid alerts in Kyiv lasted nearly 10 hours, ending at 11:20 a.m. local time (0920 GMT). Ukrainian authorities said one person was killed in the wider Kyiv region, while at least 19 people were wounded in the capital, including two children. Rescue workers were still searching for a person believed trapped beneath the rubble of a damaged residential building.
“If Russia turns even the Christmas 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,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, calling on the U.S. and Europe to apply more pressure on Moscow. He said rescuers were still searching for a person trapped under the rubble in one of the damaged residential buildings.
Russia made no immediate comment on the strikes.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, August 18, 2025 and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images.
THOUSANDS OF HOMES WITHOUT HEAT
Explosions echoed across Kyiv before dawn as air defence systems intercepted incoming drones and missiles. Ukraine’s air force said Russian drones targeted the capital as well as regions in the northeast and south of the country.
Authorities said various locations in seven different districts of Kyiv had sustained damage, and at least three high-rise apartment blocks were on fire. State grid operator Ukrenergo said energy facilities across Ukraine, including in Kyiv and the surrounding region were struck by Russia, and emergency power cuts had been implemented across the capital.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said a third of Kyiv was left without heat by the strikes as temperatures hovered around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday morning. Authorities in Kyiv region, which surrounds the city but does not include it, said 320,000 households had lost power after the attack.
The strikes also prompted the temporary closure of Rzeszow and Lublin airports in southeastern Poland, to the west of Ukraine, after the Polish armed forces scrambled fighter jets, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency posted on X.
Russia also launched strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday night and stepped up attacks on the southern Odesa region, home to the country’s main seaports, Ukrainian authorities said.
TERRITORIAL CONTROL: A DIPLOMATIC STUMBLING BLOCK
Territory remains the central stumbling block in efforts to end the war, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that a 20-point draft framework, the backbone of a U.S.-led push for a peace agreement, is about 90% complete.
Speaking to journalists in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said a separate security guarantees agreement between Ukraine and the United States was nearing completion, calling it a critical safeguard after earlier post-Soviet assurances failed to prevent Russian aggression.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelenskiy posted on social media.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was driving the process, telling Politico that no deal would move forward without his approval.
“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump said. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
Before their anticipated meeting, Zelenskiy is scheduled to hold talks on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European leaders, according to a Commission spokesperson.
Zelenskiy told Axios the U.S. had offered a 15-year deal on security guarantees, subject to renewal, but Kyiv wanted a longer agreement with legally binding provisions to guard against further Russian aggression.
Trump said he believed Sunday’s meeting would go well. He also said he expected to speak with Putin “soon, as much as I want.”
Firefighters at the site of a Russian strike on an apartment building on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters.
NUCLEAR PLANT, FREE ECONOMIC ZONE ALSO AT ISSUE
Beyond territory, another major sticking point is control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, which was seized by Russian forces in the early weeks of the war.
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the areas of the eastern region of Donetsk that Russian troops have failed to occupy in their drive to secure all of the Donbas, which also includes the Luhansk region. Kyiv, however, wants the fighting halted at the current front lines.
Under a U.S. compromise proposal, a free economic zone would be set up if Ukrainian troops pull back from parts of the Donetsk region, though details have yet to be worked out.
Axios quoted Zelenskiy as saying that if he is not able to push the U.S. to back Ukraine’s position on the land issue, he was willing to put the 20-point plan to a referendum – as long as Russia agrees to a 60-day ceasefire allowing Ukraine to prepare for and hold the vote.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Kyiv’s version of the 20-point plan differed from what Russia had been discussing with the U.S., according to the Interfax-Russia news agency. But he expressed optimism that matters had reached a “turning point” in the search for a settlement.
