BERLIN/ WASHINGTON: Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh attacks on Saturday, underscoring the fragility of the battlefield as senior U.S. and European officials prepared to resume talks aimed at ending the war.
Moscow launched a wave of drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian energy and port infrastructure, while Kyiv carried out a deadly strike in southwestern Russia, a day before diplomatic engagements were set to begin in Berlin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said officials from Ukraine, the United States and Europe would hold a series of meetings in the coming days, including talks with envoys of U.S. President Donald Trump. Zelenskyy said discussions would focus on the foundations of peace and a political agreement to end the conflict, stressing the need for guarantees to prevent future Russian invasions.
According to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are traveling to Berlin for the talks.
Washington has spent months attempting to bridge the demands of both sides as Trump presses for a swift end to the war, growing increasingly frustrated by delays. Negotiations have repeatedly stalled over major issues, particularly the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, most of which is currently occupied by Russian forces.
As diplomacy gathers pace, the fighting continues unabated. Zelenskyy said Russia attacked five Ukrainian regions overnight using more than 450 drones and 30 missiles. Ukraine’s interior minister Ihor Klymenko said more than one million people were left without electricity as temperatures hovered near freezing.
In Odesa, drone strikes ignited fires in grain silos at the port, according to Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba, while two people were wounded elsewhere in the region. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure to deprive the population of heat, electricity and water for a fourth consecutive winter.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Saratov region, killing two people and damaging residential buildings, a kindergarten and a clinic, regional governor Roman Busargin said. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it shot down 41 Ukrainian drones overnight.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces said the northern part of Pokrovsk remained under Ukrainian control, despite Russian claims of having fully captured the strategically important city. The claims could not be independently verified.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov reiterated on Friday that Russia would only agree to a ceasefire if Ukrainian forces withdraw from parts of the Donetsk region they still hold. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected any territorial concessions. Ushakov also said Russian police and national guard units would remain in parts of the Donbas even under a demilitarized-zone arrangement, a condition Ukraine is likely to oppose.
Ushakov warned that negotiations could be protracted, accusing Ukraine and its European allies of diluting U.S. proposals that had taken Russian demands into account.
Separately, about 480 passengers were evacuated from a train traveling from the Polish city of Przemysl to Kyiv after a reported threat, Polish police said. No one was injured. Polish authorities remain on high alert following earlier attempts to disrupt rail links to Ukraine, incidents Warsaw says were linked to Russia.
– Tom Hogue with Seung Min Kim
