Ukrainian drone attack kills 2 in Russia; millions in Ukraine left without electricity

An Ukrainian drone attack killed two people in southwestern Russia overnight, while some areas of Ukraine were left without electricity after Russian overnight attacks on energy infrastructure, authorities reported on Saturday, at a time when US-led peace talks were about to restart on Sunday. Foreign policy advisors from the United States, Ukraine, and Germany, among others, will meet in Berlin, reported the German news agency dpa. Germany will receive Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, as part of the efforts of European leaders to channel negotiations. For months, the United States has tried to reconcile the demands of each side and President Donald Trump is pushing for a quick end to the war in Russia and is increasingly exasperated by the delay. The search for possible compromises has encountered major obstacles, including control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, mostly occupied by Russia, but parts of which remain under Ukrainian control. The drone attack in the Russian region of Saratov damaged a residential building and shattered several windows in a kindergarten and a clinic, reported the governor of Saratov, Roman Busargin. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported having shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight. In Ukraine, Russia launched overnight drone and missile attacks against five regions, targeting its energy and port infrastructure. Ukraine’s Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko, said that more than a million people were left without electricity. Zelenskyy stressed that Moscow launched more than 450 drones and 30 missiles over Ukrainian territory overnight. In the city of Odesa, on the Black Sea, the attacks caused a fire in grain silos in the port, according to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reconstruction of Ukraine, Oleksiy Kuleba. Two people were injured in incidents recorded in the Odesa region, explained its main representative, Oleh Kiper. Kyiv and its Western allies maintain that Moscow is trying to cripple the Ukrainian electrical grid and deny the civilian population access to heating, light, and running water for the fourth winter in a row, which Ukrainian authorities consider to be “turning the cold into a weapon.” In the front lines, Ukrainian forces indicated on Saturday that the northern part of the crucial city of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims earlier this month that it had taken full control of the city. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the claims.

Russia Plans to Maintain Control Over the Donbas

The most recent round of attacks came after Yuri Ushakov, an advisor to the Kremlin, stated on Friday that the police and the Russian National Guard will remain in the Donbas, the industrialized region of eastern Ukraine, and will monitor it even if a peace agreement ends the war that the neighboring countries have been fighting for almost four years. This underscores Moscow’s ambition to maintain its presence in the Donbas after the war. Kyiv is likely to reject this measure as US-led negotiations drag on. Russia will only give its approval to a ceasefire once the rival forces have withdrawn from the front, Ushakov added in statements published in the Russian economic newspaper Kommersant. Ukraine has consistently refused to cede the region to Russia, especially since parts remain under its control. In other developments, around 480 people were evacuated on Saturday from a train traveling between the Polish city of Przemysl and Kyiv after police received a call about a threat on the train, Karolina Kowalik, a spokeswoman for the Przemysl police, told the AP. No one was injured and she did not give further details about the threat. Polish authorities are on high alert following multiple attempts to disrupt trains on the line connecting Warsaw with the Ukrainian border, including the use of explosives in November, with Polish authorities saying they have evidence that Russia was behind it.