At least three people were killed, including a five-year-old child, and at least 10 others injured as Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, hitting apartment buildings and causing several fires throughout the city, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. Kyiv, its surrounding region and the eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts, according to Ukraine’s air force.
Russia said one person died when a drone hit a car in the Rostov region, while at least 59 Ukrainian drones were launched at Russian areas, including Rostov, Astrakhan, Voronezh, Volgograd, Kursk and Saratov, as well as over illegally Russian-occupied Crimea. Russian authorities made their usual broad claim that all Ukrainian drones were shot down.
Talks between US and Ukrainian officials are scheduled to begin on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. A Washington source briefed on the planning of the meetings said the US side would be led by Andrew Peek of the national security council and Michael Anton of the state department, Reuters reported.
After US officials meet the Ukrainians on Sunday night, they will meet Russian officials on Monday, Reuters reports. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said earlier this week, however, that Ukrainian officials would be present at the talks involving US and Russian officials but would not be in the same room as the Russians.
Zelenskyy is expected to present a list of facility types that could be subject to a partial ceasefire on energy targets. The Kremlin said Russian and US experts were also due to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea at the talks in Saudi Arabia.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday he had met top military commanders in Ukraine’s north-east to discuss the frontline as well as the upcoming talks with US officials. In social media images, Zelenskyy was seen in Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russian attacks. He said he discussed frontline sectors in Ukraine’s east as well as in western Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops remain seven months after a cross-border incursion.
Authorities in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region brought in firefighting trains loaded with water on Saturday to help battle a blaze still raging at an oil depot after a Ukrainian drone attack. Regional officials said four trains were drafted into the site at Kavkazskaya, where the fire first broke out last Tuesday. Firefighters were tackling a fire still burning at one of the tanks at the site covering 1,250 square metres while also trying to cool other equipment at the site. On Friday, depressurisation of the burning tank triggered an explosion and the release of burning oil, Russian officials said.
