At least three people were killed during a large Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s capital overnight, local officials said on Sunday, hours before U.S.-mediated talks to discuss a partial cease-fire began in Saudi Arabia.
Multiple explosions shook the capital, Kyiv, overnight as air defense units fired at incoming drones. The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia had launched nearly 150 drones across the country, and that it had shot down approximately 100. The assertion could not be independently verified.
On Sunday morning, the local authorities in Kyiv said that some drones and debris from others that were shot down had fallen on several buildings in the city, sparking fires. Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said that three people were killed: a father and his 5-year-old daughter, as well as an 80-year-old woman. At least 10 people were injured.
The toll was unusually high for Kyiv, which is one of Ukraine’s best defended cities. In recent months, Russia has intensified attacks on the capital, aiming to overwhelm its air defenses with waves of drones. Once a rarity, the buzz of attack drones flying over buildings can now be heard frequently in the center of the city, home to the presidential palace and Parliament.
The 80-year-old woman was killed when a drone struck the top floors of her residential building, according to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Hryhoriy Danylenko, 23, who lives across the street, said the strike ignited a fire that quickly spread through the residential building’s top floors.
“People in their everyday clothes were running for shelter,” he said in a phone interview. “There were huge flames.”
Both Russia and Ukraine agreed last week to a cease-fire that would temporarily halt strikes on energy infrastructure. But the cease-fire has not yet taken effect, with details of how it will be implemented still to be ironed out during the talks in Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, dual air assaults have not abated, underscoring the deep mistrust between the two countries. On Friday, each side blamed the other for a strike on a Russian gas station near the Ukrainian border.
The overnight attack on Kyiv came a day after officials said a woman, man and their 17-year-old daughter had been killed in a Russian drone attack in Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine.
“Russia is not stopping the fire, Putin wants to keep killing civilians, it must be stopped,” Andrii Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, wrote Sunday morning on social media.
A few hours later, U.S. and Ukrainian representatives began talks in Saudi Arabia that focused on halting attacks on energy facilities, such as power plants and substations. Ensuring shipping safety in the Black Sea was also on the agenda, according to the White House.
Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainian defense minister leading his country’s delegation, said the talks had begun around 5:30 p.m. Kyiv time and ended some five hours later. “The discussion was productive and focused — we addressed key points including energy,” he wrote on social media afterward, without providing further details.
Russia will hold separate talks with the United States on Monday, with U.S. representatives acting as mediators between the two sides. A Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the Ukrainian delegation might hold additional discussions with U.S. officials on Monday, depending on progress.
Unlike previous cease-fire discussions, which involved top government officials from all sides, this new round will focus on the technical aspects of implementing the partial truce and will primarily involve diplomats and advisers. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said his country had prepared a list of infrastructure objects that could be covered by the cease-fire.
Strikes on energy facilities have been central to each side’s efforts to weaken the other throughout the war. Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid, aiming to make life unbearable for civilians and hinder the country’s war effort, while Ukraine has struck Russian oil facilities to try to choke off revenues fueling Moscow’s military operations.
Both nations rely on the Black Sea for commodity exports. In mid-2022, they brokered a deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain, only for Russia to withdraw a year later. Since then, fighting over control of the sea has persisted. Ukraine has managed to drive Russian warships out of its waters and establish a secure shipping corridor to global markets.
