{"id":475900,"date":"2025-12-27T23:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T23:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475900\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T23:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T23:34:13","slug":"russia-hits-kyiv-with-missiles-and-drones-the-day-before-zelenskyy-and-trump-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/475900\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia hits Kyiv with missiles and drones the day before Zelenskyy and Trump meet"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia attacked Ukraine\u2019s capital with ballistic missiles and drones<\/a> on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States<\/a>, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in early morning and continued for hours.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks<\/a> on ending the nearly four-year war. Zelenskyy told reporters that he and Trump plan to discuss several matters including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis attack is Russia\u2019s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn\u2019t want peace,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Russia strikes Ukraine\u2019s capital and kills at least 1 person a day before Zelenskyy-Trump meeting\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports Russia attacks Kyiv, killing one and wounding several others ahead of Ukraine-US talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe barbarism that we saw overnight, the attack of Kyiv, shows just how important that we stand with Ukraine during this difficult time,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n

Apartment buildings hit<\/p>\n

The Russian Defense Ministry said that it carried out a \u201cmassive strike\u201d overnight, using \u201clong-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles\u201d and drones. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine\u2019s forces and military-industrial enterprises.<\/p>\n

But several residential buildings were struck.<\/p>\n

The ministry said the strike was in response to Ukraine\u2019s attacks on \u201ccivilian objects\u201d in Russia. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones \u201cflying towards\u201d the Russian capital on Saturday. He didn\u2019t report any damage or casualties. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether those were included in the Defense Ministry\u2019s count.<\/p>\n

Russia claims territorial gains<\/p>\n

In what could be viewed as an effort to further ramp up pressure on Ukraine before the Zelenskyy-Trump talks, the Kremlin on Saturday night released a video of Putin in military fatigues receiving reports from top military officials in an unidentified military command post.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin that the Russian troops have taken full control of Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region \u2014 Russia uses the old Soviet name of the city, Dimitrov \u2014 the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region, and a few other settlements. <\/p>\n

Putin said that \u201dif Kyiv authorities are not willing to end the matter peacefully, we will achieve all the goals we have in the special military operation by military means.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s General Staff rejected these claims as \u201cnot supported by facts.\u201d It said that the situation in Huliaipole is \u201cdifficult, but the defensive operation in the city is ongoing.\u201d In Myrnohrad, the situation remains \u201cchallenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe senior political leadership of the aggressor state has once again resorted to spreading false claims about significant \u2018successes\u2019 by the Russian army on the battlefield,\u201d the General Staff said in an online statement. <\/p>\n

Poland on alert<\/p>\n

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\u2019s armed forces command said on social media. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Man burns to death<\/p>\n

More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.<\/p>\n

Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard a man as he burned to death. \u201cHis scream is still in my ears. I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said, weeping.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if that person was the man who burned to death.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine\u2019s Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s largest private energy company, DTEK, said on X on Saturday evening that the Russian attack caused \u201cextensive power outages\u201d in Kyiv, saying that hundreds of thousands of customers remained without power.<\/p>\n

Security guarantees prioritized<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were \u201c as few unresolved issues as possible<\/a> \u201d in talks with Trump, while respecting Ukraine\u2019s red lines.<\/p>\n

Speaking by audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine<\/a>. He has said that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance\u2019s Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies.<\/p>\n

But key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.<\/p>\n

Territorial concessions are the most sensitive of issues<\/a> the two leaders will discuss.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, Rob Gillies in Toronto and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the war at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia attacked Ukraine\u2019s capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[64,69,56270,5755,57,51,37593,215655,18809,8132,13342,50,215656,74772,80,257,3658,3657,32548,52,273,3660,215657,274,3656,96,93,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-475900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","11":"tag-drones","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-kyiv","15":"tag-lublin","16":"tag-mark-carney","17":"tag-military-and-defense","18":"tag-military-technology","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-olena-karpenko","21":"tag-poland-government","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-russia","24":"tag-russia-government","25":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","26":"tag-sergei-sobyanin","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-ukraine","29":"tag-ukraine-government","30":"tag-valery-gerasimov","31":"tag-vladimir-putin","32":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","33":"tag-war-and-unrest","34":"tag-washington-news","35":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115794154006169995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}