Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing for crucial talks with Donald Trump tomorrow to once again try to bring to an end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The meeting between the two presidents will take place after hours of air attacks by Russia on Ukraine‘s capital Kyiv on Saturday. At least two people died and more than 30 others were injured, according to authorities.
Mr Zelenskyy has held discussions with Mr Trump several times this year, most recently at the White House in October, as the US leads the diplomatic push to end the war that has been raging for almost four years.
This time, they will meet in Florida to discuss several issues, including territory, security guarantees and the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the Ukrainian leader has said.
Afterwards, he will hold further talks with European leaders.
Mr Zelenskyy said he hopes the “very important” meeting with Mr Trump will be “very constructive”. A 20-point peace framework and security guarantee deal to be discussed “is about 90% ready” and “a lot can be decided before the New Year”, he said.
Ahead of the discussions with the US leader, the Ukrainian president made a pit-stop in Canada to meet the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney.
Mr Carney announced an additional $2.5 billion of economic aid for Ukraine – and condemned Russia’s latest strikes on Kyiv as acts of “barbarism”.
Explosions boomed across the Ukrainian capital for hours early on Saturday as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. In a post on Telegram, Mr Zelenskyy said Russia targeted Ukraine with almost 500 drones and 40 missiles of various types.
“There have been many questions these days,” he wrote. “Where is the Russian response to the proposals to end the war, which were made by the United States and the world?”
The strikes left at least a third of the city without power, with private electricity company DTEK reporting around 500,000 families were without power at one point.
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The Russian defence ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea”, as well as drones, on energy infrastructure facilities “used by the Ukrainian armed forces” and “Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises”.
But several residential buildings were also hit, according to Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko.
Russia said the strike came in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, its defence ministry said it had 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.
Poland said it scrambled fighter jets and temporarily closed two of its airports in the east of the country in response to Russia’s attack.
There was no violation of Polish airspace, the country’s armed forces command said on X.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Saturday that Russian forces had captured one town in the Donetsk region and one in Zaporizhzhia.
Both areas are heavily contested and key to Russia’s territorial ambitions in the east of Ukraine.
Sky News could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
