Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv hit residential buildings and energy infrastructure facilities.
– Russian forces launched a massive strike on Ukraine on Saturday night, launching a total of 396 drones and missiles of various types.
– The main targets of the Russian attack were Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and its major eastern city of Kharkiv, with at least one person killed and more than 20 injured.
– “Kyiv is under massive enemy shelling. Do not leave your shelters!”, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged Kyiv residents in Telegram.
– He saidfires broke out in several buildings hit by drone debris, and water and heating supplies were disrupted in some parts of the capital. One person died. Many people spent the night at metro stations, which became shelters for Kyiv citizens.
– A series of powerful explosions took place in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv.
– Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian drone strikes damaged several residential buildings.
– Chernihiv, located in the north of the country, was seriously affected by the massive Russian shelling.
– The strikes hit energy infrastructure facilities and equipment was damaged. Almost the entire city has been shelled.
– The new wave of attacks comes amid a direct meeting of negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States, which began on Friday and is to continue on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, on a plan promoted by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year war.
– Ahead of those talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the key stumbling block remains the issue of territory – with Moscow insisting on the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, an industrial region in the east of the country.