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  • Russia attacks Ukraine ahead of second day of peace talks between US and both countries

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least one person and wounded 31 overnight into Saturday as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States were to meet in the United Arab Emirates for a second day of talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.

    One person was killed and four were wounded in Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko.

    In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, drone attacks wounded 27 people, Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday.

    The attacks came as envoys were expected to meet in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, for a second day of talks on Saturday. The talks are the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.

    The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks are part of efforts “to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.” The White House described Friday’s first day as productive.

    Following the latest attacks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin over the onslaught.

    “Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led peace process,” Sybiha wrote on X. “His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table.”

    There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.

    While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was “nearly ready,” certain sensitive sticking points – most notably those related to territorial issues – remain unresolved.

    Just hours before the three-way talks began, Putin discussed a Ukraine settlement with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon overnight talks. The Kremlin insists that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but has not fully captured.

    Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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  • Power restored to 800,000 in Kyiv after major Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Power was restored to over 800,000 residents in Kyiv on Saturday, a day after Russia launched major attacks on the Ukrainian power grid that caused blackouts across much of the country, and European leaders agreed to proceed toward using hundreds of billions of frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s war effort.

    Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said Saturday that “the main work to restore the power supply” had been completed, but that some localized outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Friday’s “massive” Russian attacks.

    Russian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and triggered blackouts across swaths of Ukraine early Friday.

    Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday said the strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military. It did not give details of those facilities, but said Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones against them.

    The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.

    Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale. Winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Friday that Russia was taking advantage of the world being “almost entirely focused on the prospect of establishing peace in the Middle East,” and called for strengthening Ukraine’s air defense systems and tighter sanctions on Russia.

    “Russian assets must be fully used to strengthen our defense and ensure recovery,” he said in the video, posted to X.

    Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement on Friday they were ready to move toward using “in a coordinated way, the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation table.”

    The statement added they aimed to do this “in close cooperation with the United States.”

    Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total around 130 billion euros ($153 billion). The European Union has already poured in 174 billion euros (about $202 billion) since the war started in February 2022.

    The biggest pot of ready funds available is through frozen Russian assets, most of which is held in Belgium – around 194 billion euros ($225 billion) as of June – and outside the EU in Japan, with around $50 billion, and the U.S., U.K. and Canada with lesser amounts.

    Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that its air defenses intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s defense ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.

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  • Russia launches a large-scale attack on Ukraine, killing 3 and wounding dozens

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack targeting regions across Ukraine early Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens more, Ukrainian officials said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said attacks took place across nine regions, including Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy and Kharkiv.

    “The enemy’s target was our infrastructure, residential areas and civilian enterprises,” he said, adding that a missile equipped with cluster munitions struck a multi-story building in the city of Dnipro.

    “Each such strike is not a military necessity but a deliberate strategy by Russia to intimidate civilians and destroy our infrastructure,” he said in a statement on his official Telegram.

    Zelenskyy said he expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week. He also said the first ladies of Ukraine and the United States would likely hold separate talks focused on humanitarian issues involving children.

    His comments, which he made on Friday, were embargoed until Saturday morning.

    At least 30 people were wounded in the attack in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Serhii Lysak said. Several high-rise buildings and homes were damaged in the eastern city of Dnipro.

    In the Kyiv region, local authorities said there were strikes in the areas of Bucha, Boryspil and Obukhiv. A home and cars were damaged. In the western region of Lviv, Gov. Maxim Kozytsky said two cruise missiles were shot down.

    Russia launched 619 drones and missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said in a statement. In total, 579 drones, eight ballistic missiles and 32 cruise missiles were detected. Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 552 drones, two ballistic missiles and 29 cruise missiles.

    “During the air strike, tactical aviation, in particular F-16 fighters, effectively worked on the enemy’s cruise missiles. Western weapons once again prove their effectiveness on the battlefield,” the Air Force said in a statement.

    Russia denies violating Estonia’s airspace

    Russia’s Defense Ministry denied its aircraft violated Estonia’s airspace, after Tallinn reported three fighter jets crossed into its territory on Friday without permission and remained there for 12 minutes.

    The incident, described by Estonia’s top diplomat as an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion, happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland, heightening fears that Moscow’s war on Ukraine could spill over.

    In an online statement published early Saturday, Moscow stressed its fighter jets had kept to neutral Baltic Sea waters more than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Estonia’s Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland.

    “On September 19, three MiG-31 fighter jets completed a scheduled flight from Karelia to an airfield in the Kaliningrad region,” it said, referencing the Russian enclave sandwiched between Polish and Lithuanian territory.

    “The flight was conducted in strict compliance with international airspace regulations and did not violate the borders of other states, as confirmed through objective monitoring,” the statement said without providing details about the monitoring operation.

    On Friday, Estonian officials said Tallinn had summoned a Russian diplomat to protest, and also moved “to start consultations among the allies” under NATO’s Article 4, which states that parties would confer whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

    Zelenskyy hopes to finalize security guarantees in New York meetings

    Zelenskyy said that Ukraine and its partners have laid the groundwork for long-term security guarantees and that he hopes to gauge how close they are to finalizing such commitments during next week’s meetings in New York.

    He said European nations are prepared to move forward with a framework if the United States remains closely engaged. He noted that discussions have taken place at multiple levels, including among military leadership and general staffs from both Europe and the U.S.

    “I would like to receive signals for myself on how close we are to understanding that the security guarantees from all partners will be the kind we need,” Zelenskyy said.

    Zelenskyy said sanctions against Russia must remain on the table if peace efforts stall, and that he plans to press the issue in talks with Trump.

    “If the war continues and there is no movement toward peace, we expect sanctions,” he said, adding that Trump is looking for strong steps from Europe.

    Copyright © 2025 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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