Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack targeting Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, early on Saturday, as US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates for the second day of tripartite peace talks.
With Kyiv and other cities in the midst of widespread outages of heat, water and power following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, officials in Kyiv said one person had been killed and at least 15 injured in strikes that continued until morning.
The Russian strikes, taking place in the middle of the first tripartite talks of the war, come in tandem with Russia continuing to insist it must control the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, underlining doubts that Moscow is serious about peace.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said: “Currently, one person is known to have died and four to have been wounded,” he wrote in a social media post, adding that three of the injured had been hospitalised.
Fires broke out in several buildings hit by drone debris while heat and water services in parts of the capital were interrupted, he said.
The strikes come amid a worsening mid-winter energy crisis focused on the capital where many have been left without heat and power for a prolonged period.
On Friday Klitschko said that about 1,940 residential buildings in the capital remained without heating after renewed attacks, adding “and this may not be the most difficult moment yet”.
According to Klitschko’s office, 600,000 residents have left the city temporarily during the January power crisis that has left entire blocks across the city in darkness.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, reported strikes in at least four districts. A medical facility was among the buildings damaged.
Kyiv has already endured two mass overnight attacks this year that have knocked out power and heating to hundreds of residential buildings. Emergency workers were still engaged in restoring services to residents, with overnight temperatures dipping to –13C (9F).
In Kharkiv, a frequent target 30km (18 miles) from the Russian border, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones had hit several districts over two and a half hours, with at least 14 people injured.
Writing on Telegram, Terekhov said the drones had struck a dormitory for displaced people, a hospital and a maternity hospital.
The latest attacks occurred after negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US completed the first of two days of peace talks aimed at finding a resolution to the nearly four-year-old war.
