Ukraine peace talks continue as Russia intensifies missile strikes

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major barrage of missiles and drones on Ukraine overnight Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials announced they would meet Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the outbreak. the war which has lasted for almost 4 years.

Following negotiations that made progress on a security framework for post-war Ukraine, both sides also soberly assessed that any “real progress toward an agreement” will ultimately depend “on Russia’s willingness to demonstrate a serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement of the American special envoy Steve WittkoffTrump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came Friday after meeting for the second day in Florida. They gave only broad overviews of the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes kyiv and Moscow to accept a U.S.-brokered proposal to end the war.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the large-scale night attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came 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, adding that 29 sites were hit.

At least eight people were injured in the attacks, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Among them, at least three people were injured in the kyiv region, according to local authorities. Drone sightings have been reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

A nuclear power plant temporarily cut off power

Russia carried out a “massive missile and drone attack” on power plants and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site electricity overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its director general Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The factory has been in an area under Russian control since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in servicebut it needs reliable energy to cool its six shut down reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incident.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike “burned down” the railway station in the town of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight Saturday.

Russian news channel Telegram Astra said Ukraine had struck Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery, sharing footage showing a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said that Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan Regional Governor Pavel Malkov said a residential building was damaged in a drone attack and drone debris fell on the grounds of an “industrial facility”, but did not mention the refinery.

Month of Long-range Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries aimed to deprive Moscow of oil export earnings he must continue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to paralyze the Ukrainian electricity grid and depriving civilians of access to heat, electricity and running water for the fourth winter in a row, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

Slow progress towards agreement on security framework

The latest series of attacks took place as the United States That of President Donald Trump Ukrainian advisers and officials said they would meet on Saturday for a third day of negotiations, after making progress in seeking agreement on a security framework for post-war Ukraine.

After Friday’s talks, both sides also soberly assessed that any “real progress toward an agreement” will ultimately depend “on Russia’s willingness to demonstrate a serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement of the American special envoy Steve WittkoffTrump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came Friday after meeting for the second day in Florida. They gave only broad overviews of the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes kyiv and Moscow to accept a U.S.-brokered proposal to end the conflict. almost four years of war.

Zelensky is expected to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Monday, where the leaders will discuss ongoing talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials aimed at finding a deal guaranteeing Ukraine’s post-war security.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine