Moscow's "Massive Missile-Drone Attacks" on Ukraine

"Ukraine can count on our unwavering support. That is the whole point of the efforts we have undertaken as part of the Coalition of the Willing."

"We will continue these efforts alongside the Americans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees, without which there can be no robust and lasting peace."

"For what is at stake in Ukraine is also the security of Europe as a whole."

French President Emmanuel Macron

 

"Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace." 

"[There was a] substantive phone call [with U.S. officials engaged with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida." 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Investments are being made across Europe to shore up its defence capabilities in the face of increased Russian aggression and an uncertain defence alliance with the United States.  Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images

 

Another overnight into Saturday major missile and drone barrage hit Ukraine from Russia, even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues ongoing peace negotiations with the Trump administration, hoping to end the close-to-four-years conflict. No fewer than 653 drones and 51 missiles hit overnight in a wide-ranging attack triggering air raid alerts across the country, at a time when Ukraine was marking its Armed Forces Day.

 

Ukrainian forces managed to shoot down and neutralize 585 drones and 30 of the missiles during the attack, striking 29 locations across Ukraine. According to local officials, a handful of people were wounded in the Kyiv region. As far west as the Lviv region, there were drone sightings. Russia's intention is to carry out "massive missile-drone attacks" on power stations and assorted energy infrastructure in a number of regions in Ukraine, according to its national energy operator Ukrenergo.

 

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost off-site power overnight. Located in an area under Russian control since the early stages of Moscow's Ukraine invasion, the plant is not in service, but requires reliable power to cool its six shuttered reactors and spent fuel in avoidance of potential catastrophic nuclear incidents. One of the missiles penetrated part of a roof covering of one of the plants and this occurrence aroused condemnation by Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  

 

People in the town of Slobozhanske, in Ukraine's Dnipro region, take in the wreckage on Saturday following Russia's attack. (Mykola Synelnykov/Reuters)

 

Energy facilities, while remaining the main targets of the attacks, a drone strike, noted Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, had "burned down" the train station in Fastiv, in the Kyiv region. In a giving-as-good-as-it-gets enterprise, Ukraine had sent 115 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, during the same time frame, all of which Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed had been shot down by its air defences.

 

Of more serious concern to Russia, its Telegram news channel Astra reported that Russia's Ryazan Oil Refinery had been struck by Ukraine Armed Forces. Video footage aired to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery.  According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Ukrainian forces struck the refinery.

 

A residential building was damaged in a drone attack, reported Ryazan regional governor, with drone debris falling on the grounds of an "industrial facility". Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on refineries for months on hand have a well-defined purpose, to deprive Moscow of revenue from oil exports which fund its war in Ukraine. 

 

Nataliia Malashok and relatives look at her house that was damaged during a night of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, in Novi Petrivtsi, outside Kyiv, on Saturday. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

 

 Russia's goal this winter, as in three winters past, has been to cripple the Ukrainian power god to impact the civilian population, denying it heat, light and running water. Ukrainian officials name the tactic as "weaponizing" the seasonal winter cold. Some progress was made on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine between the U.S. advisers and Ukrainian officials, planning to meet again in Florida.

 

Following discussions on Friday, the two sides agreed that any "real progress toward any agreement" ultimately will depend "on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace". And that fond hope is belied by Moscow's rapacious ongoing pursuit of more Ukrainian territory to reach its goal of violently recapturing enough of Ukraine to satisfy its appetite for territorial expansion. 

 

A railway hub near Kyiv burnt down after being hit by Russian strikes. (Reuters: Valentyn Ogirenko)

 

Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andri Hnatov reached that inevitable conclusion following their second meeting with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. Loathe to commit to offering statements respecting any progress they claim have been reached, while President Trump engages Kyiv and Moscow to an agreement with the U.S.-mediated proposal to end the war, only vague descriptions of possible progress were alluded to.

 

Perhaps one of the issues of progress might be an agreement that the leaders of the U.K., France and Germany would be welcome to participate in a meeting with President Zelenskyy on Monday. That will offer the embattled Ukrainian president a little breathing relief, receiving ongoing assurances from his country's supporters, relieving the tension of having to cope with unrelenting pressure from President Donald J. Trump. 

 

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight. (Reuters: Alina Smutko)