{"id":254733,"date":"2025-12-27T22:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T22:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254733\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T22:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T22:35:10","slug":"zelenskiy-holds-talks-with-carney-and-european-leaders-en-route-to-trump-meeting-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/254733\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskiy holds talks with Carney and European leaders en route to Trump meeting \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russian<\/a> forces hit Ukraine\u2019s<\/a> capital and key energy facilities with a massive airstrike on the eve of talks between Volodymyr Zelenskiy<\/a> and Donald Trump<\/a> aimed at nailing down a plan to end Moscow\u2019s war.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy stopped in Canada en route to the US<\/a>, where he met the country\u2019s prime minister, Mark Carney<\/a>, who announced an additional $2.5bn of economic aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Carney condemned the \u201cbarbaric\u201d overnight attack on Kyiv. He said: \u201cWe have the conditions, the possibility, for the just and lasting peace,\u201d adding this requires a \u201cwilling Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy and Carney were due to speak by video call with European allies. European and Canadian politicians and diplomats have sought to help Zelenskiy deal with Trump during negotiations.<\/p>\n

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will take part in the call, a commission spokesperson said. Key sticking points include Ukrainian security guarantees and reconstruction, plus territorial discussions regarding the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president reiterated to reporters from his plane on Saturday Ukraine\u2019s need for legally binding security guarantees from allies if hostilities are brought to an end.<\/p>\n

More than 500 drones and 40 missiles \u2014 including Kinzhal hypersonic weapons \u2014 were launched in a barrage that started overnight and continued throughout the day on Saturday, hitting civilian targets and energy facilities. Air raid sirens have sounded in the capital for about 16 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and \u2018Shaheds\u2019 speak for them,\u201d Zelenskiy said.<\/p>\n

The barrage killed one person in Kyiv and injured at least 30, disrupted power and water supplies, and sparked fires across several districts. About one-third of the city of over 3 million residents was left without heating with temperatures hovering around freezing.<\/p>\n

\"SmokeSmoke rising above residential buildings on December 27th following the Russian attack on Kyiv. Photograph: AFP <\/p>\n

More than 600,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region were without electricity around midday Saturday, Prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko<\/a> said on Telegram. \u201cRussians are pursuing a campaign built on instilling exhaustion, cold, and fear,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Several high-rise residential buildings, as well as cars and other property, were set ablaze, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. Authorities imposed emergency power cuts in the capital, overriding rolling blackouts that had already been scheduled, while water supplies were also disrupted.<\/p>\n

The Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine also saw power cuts, Ukraine\u2019s energy ministry said. In late afternoon, Ukraine\u2019s air force command said it had identified a missile headed toward Myrhorod in central Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russia attacked gas extraction and heating producing facilities operated by Naftogaz, Ukraine\u2019s state-run energy company, CEO Sergii Koretskyi said on Facebook. \u201cObviously, these attacks are synchronized with cold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s defense ministry said in a post on Telegram that its strikes \u201ctargeted energy infrastructure used by Ukraine\u2019s armed forces as well as defense industry facilities,\u201d and that \u201call targets were hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian president Vladimir Putin<\/a> \u200dsaid that Russia \u200dcould see Kyiv was in \u200cno hurry to \u2060end the Ukraine conflict \u200cby \u200bpeaceful \u200dmeans, Interfax news agency reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Putin \u2060said \u2060that if Ukraine \u2060didn\u2019t want to resolve \u200dthe conflict peacefully then Russia would resolve all goals of \u200cits \u201cspecial military \u200coperation\u201d by force, Russian \u200cstate news agency TASS \u2060reported.<\/p>\n

Separately, Moscow\u2019s mayor reported 12 drones in the vicinity of the capital, with Vnukovo airport temporarily suspending flights and Sheremetyevo airport operating with restrictions. In all, Russia\u2019s defense ministry said it shot down 111 drones on Saturday afternoon. One person was reported to have been killed in the Belgorod region.<\/p>\n

Events are unfolding a day before Zelenskiy is set to meet with Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, in pursuit of a deal to end Russia\u2019s nearly four-year invasion.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy said Friday that he plans to refine Kyiv\u2019s agreements with the US as much as possible, with a comprehensive 20-point peace plan then requiring input from Russia and Europe. He plans to discuss sensitive issues with Trump, including the future of the Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as well as a long-term roadmap for Ukraine\u2019s battered economy.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s meeting is set for 3pm local time, according to Trump\u2019s official schedule. The US leader is spending the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago club.<\/p>\n

Besides Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian negotiating team will include top envoy Rustem Umerov, economy minister Oleksii Sobelev, chief of the General Staff Andriy Hnatov, presidential office adviser Oleksandr Bevz, and first deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Year of Trump unleashed: Five critical issues that will define US politics in 2026Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy told Axios on Friday that he is ready to put an eventual framework agreement to a referendum if Russia agrees to a ceasefire of at least 60 days.<\/p>\n

On Saturday Zelenskiy said he was \u201cpolitically ready\u201d for elections, but that Ukraine needs to prepare in terms of appropriate legislation, and that he expects Russia to attempt to undermine the legitimacy of any vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the American side raises the issue of a referendum or elections \u2014 they definitely can\u2019t take place in such conditions in which we live today, namely the attacks,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trump, meanwhile, spoke on Friday with Poland\u2019s president Karol Nawrocki, the Polish leader\u2019s office said in a statement. An aide told Poland\u2019s state news agency PAP that Nawrocki stressed to Trump that Putin was the aggressor in the conflict with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

While Zelenskiy heads to the US, comments from Moscow late Friday raise doubts about how close a final agreement might be.<\/p>\n

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, in an interview with state television, described Kyiv\u2019s latest plans as \u201cradically different\u201d from the key points Moscow has discussed with the US in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Ukraine and its European allies have \u201credoubled their efforts to torpedo\u201d any accord to end a conflict, Ryabkov said. – Bloomberg\/Guardian\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian forces hit Ukraine\u2019s capital and key energy facilities with a massive airstrike on the eve of talks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,550,7,8,2264,2267,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-254733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-ukraine-crisis","23":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115793922123727413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}