Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday as US and Ukrainian officials continued talks in Miami which the White House hopes will bring an end to the conflict.
Russia used more than 650 drones and 51 missiles overnight, Ukraine’s armed forces said, with drones targeting locations across the country, including in western regions hundreds of miles from the frontline. Warning sirens also sounded in parts of eastern Poland, close to the Ukrainian border.
At least three people were injured in the attacks in Kyiv region, while the national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said much of the overnight attack had targeted power stations and other energy infrastructure. Russia has been relentlessly attacking Ukraine’s energy capabilities in recent weeks, in the hope of cutting supplies of heat, light and water as the country prepares for a fourth winter of full-scale conflict.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, while there were unconfirmed reports on Telegram that Ukraine had hit an oil refinery in the city of Ryazan. The regional governor said a residential building had been damaged and drone debris had fallen on an “industrial facility”.
Donald Trump is keen to put an end to the war, but there has so far been little sign the two sides are anywhere close to finding a common position. Talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators are due to continue for a third day in Miami on Saturday, after a meeting between Vladimir Putin, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow earlier in the week.
Washington’s plans involve Ukraine surrendering land in return for vague security guarantees and would be hard for Kyiv to accept in the current moment. There is also no indication that Russia is ready to sign a deal on Trump’s suggested terms.
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“The Russia-Ukraine thing has been a source of perennial frustration, I think, for the entire White House,” the US vice-president, JD Vance, said in an interview with NBC on Friday, reiterating that the administration had been surprised that the conflict was not easy to solve.
European nations have been blindsided by some of the US efforts and have been scrambling to stay part of the process. On Saturday, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, tried to downplay the significance of the Trump administration’s new national security strategy, published a day earlier, which said Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” due to immigration and suggested the US should back rightwing forces on the continent.
“The US is still our biggest ally,” said Kallas, speaking at a diplomatic conference in Qatar. “I think we haven’t always seen eye to eye on different topics, but I think the overall principle is still there. We are the biggest allies and we should stick together.”