RUSSIAN forces launched a massive attack on Ukraine just a day before Donald Trump’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss peace plans.
Explosions boomed across the capital Kyiv for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city – killing at least one person and injuring 22 others.
The attack began in the early morning hours on Saturday and continued as the day broke.
The Russians launched a devastating mix of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles, and a group of Kalibr cruise missiles at the capital, monitoring channels reported.
Zelensky, who is now en route to the US to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago, said that Kyiv was hit by almost 500 drones and some 40 missiles.
The Ukrainian president fumed: “Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them.”
Moscow reportedly used the Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bombers to rain hell on the capital city.
The attack killed a 47-year-old woman, Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.
An air alert lasted several hours after loud overnight explosions accompanied by bright flashes turned the sky orange.
Ukraine‘s air force announced a countrywide air alert early Saturday and said that drones and missiles were moving over several Ukrainian regions.
Two children were among those injured in the attack, which affected seven locations across the city of Kyiv, said the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene 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.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine‘s Emergency Service.
In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Over 2,600 residential buildings in Kyiv are without heat after the Russian attack, the city administration said.
Authorities in the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital but does not include it, said 320,000 households had lost power after the attack.
Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister, said a “third of the Ukrainian capital [was] without heating amid winter“.
“Russia‘s only response to peace efforts is brutal attacks using hundreds of drones and missiles against Kyiv and other cities and regions,” Sybiha added.
“Putin must realise that further rejection of peace will come at a very heavy price for him and his regime.”
Polish jets were scrambled in response to Russia‘s intense bombing campaign.
The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency confirmed that two airports – Rzeszów and Lublin – have been temporarily closed.
Mar-a-Lago affairs
Zelensky said he will meet Trump at his lavish 58-bedroom Palm Beach resort to discuss the security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Territorial concessions remain the main diplomatic stumbling block since diplomats from Kyiv, Washington and Moscow have engaged in peace negotiations.
An updated 20-point peace draft in the US-driven campaign to clinch a peace plan is 90 per cent complete, Zelensky told journalists in Kyiv.
The latest version of the peace plan differs from the original 28-point peace plan that was proposed by Washington – and heavily favoured Moscow.
Zelensky said a security guarantee agreement between Ukraine and the US was almost ready – a key element after guarantees in earlier post-Soviet years proved meaningless.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelensky posted on social media.
Trump said the US was the driving force behind the process.
“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump told Politico.
“So we’ll see what he’s got.”
Red lines
Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from the areas of the eastern region of Donetsk that Russian troops have failed to occupy in their drive to secure all of the Donbas, which also includes the Luhansk region.
Kyiv wants the fighting halted at the current lines.
On Christmas Eve, Zelensky shared details of the updated 20-point plan with journalists in a briefing.
He said he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Moscow also pulls back – and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.
Under a US compromise, a free economic zone would be set up if Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region, though details have yet to be worked out.
Meanwhile, Zelensky told Axios the US had offered a 15-year deal on security guarantees, subject to renewal.
But Kyiv wanted a longer agreement with legally binding provisions to guard against further Russian aggression.
Trump said he believed Sunday’s meeting would go well. He also said he expected to speak with Putin “soon, as much as I want”.
In addition to territory, a critical point is control of Europe‘s largest nuclear power station, Zaporizhzhia, which was seized by Russia in the opening weeks of the war.
Axios quoted Zelensky as saying that if he is not able to push the U.S. to back Ukraine’s “strong” position on the land issue, he was willing to put the 20-point plan to a referendum – as long as Russia agrees to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold the vote.
He said he wanted more pressure applied to Russia.
Kyiv said the latest peace draft, which was agreed during marathon talks with Washington, is now under Moscow’s review.
Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from the land it has seized.
In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas, an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Kyiv’s version of the 20-point plan differed from what Russia had been discussing with the US, according to Interfax-Russia news agency.
Though he expressed optimism that matters had reached a “turning point” in the search for a settlement.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, spoke with members of the Trump administration after Moscow received US proposals about a possible peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday.
It did not disclose how Moscow had viewed the documents.
But Putin has privately cast doubt on the framework, it is understood.
Speaking behind closed doors to senior businessmen, he reiterated Russia’s claim to the whole of the Donbas, according to Kommersant.
Kremlin correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov wrote that Putin was open only to limited swaps, adding: “In other words, that ‘Donbas is ours’.”
Putin also said Russia was discussing joint management of the Zaporizhzhia plant with the US, excluding Ukraine, despite Zelensky saying Washington had floated a three-way split.