KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in early morning and continued for hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for on ending the nearly four-year war. Zelenskyy told reporters he and Trump plan to discuss several matters including security guarantees and territorial issues in .
“This attack is Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want peace,†Zelenskyy said after stopping in Canada to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Carney announced $1.8 billion worth of economic assistance to Ukraine that helps unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for reconstruction and development.
“The barbarism that we saw overnight, the attack of Kyiv, shows just how important that we stand with Ukraine during this difficult time," Carney said.
Residential buildings struck
The Russian Defense Ministry said 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. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine's forces and military-industrial enterprises.
But several residential buildings were struck.
The ministry said the strike was in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects†in Russia. Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. On Saturday afternoon, the ministry said 147 more drones were shot down over a number of Russian regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards†the Russian capital on Saturday. He didn't report any damage or casualties. It wasn't immediately clear whether those were included in the Defense Ministry's count.
Poland on alert
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on social media. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said.
Civil aviation authority Pansa later said the airports had resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he said.
Screams as man burns to death
More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.
Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard a man as he burned to death. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,†she said, weeping.
Karpenko said they heard a explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, followed by a stronger blast that shook the windows of her home. Then came the strike on her building.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which hit seven locations across the capital, the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on social media.
A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said. It wasn’t immediately clear if that person was the man who burned to death.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district, and emergency crews rushed to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Security guarantees prioritized
Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were “ †in talks with Trump, while respecting Ukraine's red lines.
Speaking by audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing . He has said that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance's Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies.
But key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.
Territorial concessions are the the two leaders will discuss, including the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never recognize any territory as Russian “under any circumstances."
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Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
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