KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage into Ukraine Saturday night, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had an “important phone call” with U.S. officials involved in talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Florida aimed at ending the nearly 4-year war.
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in a sweeping overnight attack on Ukraine, triggering an airstrike alert across the country and coming as Ukraine celebrated Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, and 29 locations were attacked.
At least eight people were injured in the attack, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
At least three of them were injured in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as the Lviv region of Ukraine.
The nuclear power plant was temporarily cut off
Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrainergo, wrote on Telegram that Russia carried out “massive missile-drone attacks” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday, citing its director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has not been in service, but it needs reliable power to run its six shuttered reactors and fuel to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attack, as well as that the drone strike “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.
Russia’s defense ministry said its air defenses shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory on Saturday night.
Russian Telegram news channel Astra reported that Ukraine had attacked Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery and shared footage showing the refinery on fire and billowing smoke. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces had attacked the refinery. Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov said the drone attack damaged a residential building and that drone debris fell on the grounds of an “industrial facility” but did not mention the refinery.
Months of Ukrainian long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries are aimed at depriving Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kiev and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple Ukraine’s power grid and deny citizens access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call a “weapon” of the cold.
Progress in agreeing on a security framework has been slow
U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they would meet in Florida on Saturday for a third day of talks, the latest round of attacks following progress in finding agreement on Ukraine’s post-war security framework.
Zelensky said Saturday that he had been given phone updates by U.S. and Ukrainian officials on the talks.
“Ukraine is determined to continue working in good faith with the US side to achieve real peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
After Friday’s talks, both sides also offered a sober assessment that “real progress toward any deal” would ultimately depend on “Russia’s readiness to demonstrate a serious commitment to long-term peace.”
The statements by US special envoy Steve Wittkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umarov and Andriy Khanatov came after a second day of meetings on Friday. As Trump pressed Kiev and Moscow to agree to a U.S. mediation proposal to end the nearly four-year war, they offered only broad brushstrokes about progress.
Separately, officials said the leaders of Britain, France and Germany would attend a meeting with Zelensky in London on Monday.
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