Russian barrage knocks out power and water in Kyiv
172 drones and 36 missiles hit substations feeding the capital two days before Abu Dhabi talks, Zelensky calls Kushner blueprint Yalta 2.0 as Trump promises big beautiful agreement
Images
Firefighters on Saturday at the site of a Russian missile attack on Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
theguardian.com
Russia struck Kyiv's energy grid overnight with 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles, leaving the capital without reliable electricity, water and heat just days before Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators meet in Abu Dhabi. Five people were injured, including a 14-year-old girl.
The strikes hit electricity substations in five regions, among them one linking two nuclear power plants to the capital, and damaged a bridge over the Dnipro that Kyiv's mayor described as a key transport artery. Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to "plunge Kyiv and the entire country into a blackout", and noted that Moscow's preparations for peace talks next week involved "pummelling a city of millions with ballistic missiles". Residents had already endured day-long power cuts and water interruptions through the week.
Ukrainian officials say the Kremlin's aim is to freeze civilians into submission over the winter, which they call a war crime, and they have little confidence the US-brokered talks will produce anything concrete. Russia's defence ministry said its targets were energy and transport infrastructure. Since the summer, Moscow has sharply escalated air attacks on Ukrainian cities as its frontline progress has stalled — Kyiv puts Russia's casualties last month at 54,000 killed or injured, the highest monthly figure of the war.
The talks themselves carry a shape Zelensky has openly named. He described the blueprint set out by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, as "Yalta 2.0" — the 1945 summit where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill divided postwar Europe. Kushner's social media posts said the discussions would include a new security framework for Europe alongside guarantees for Ukraine, language that echoes the Kremlin's demand that Nato roll back its post-1997 enlargement. Western diplomats say agreeing to that would effectively end Nato. "The idea of discussing European-Russian security infrastructure is not simple, and it can be dangerous," Zelensky told CNN. "We don't want to be divided by Russia."
Trump said on Friday that a "big beautiful agreement" involving "all of Europe" could be close. Zelensky, appealing to the US Congress after the Democratic midterm win, put it more plainly: "Ukraine must not be left alone."