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Russian attacks on Kyiv and Boryspil international airports were “clearly” a reaction to the possibility of the US negotiators flying to Kyiv after talks in Moscow, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said. On Saturday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv had “taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace, which has become dangerous because of our drones and missiles in the sky. Of course, there are and will be no threats to diplomacy from our side.” Both airports service the Ukrainian capital.
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There was no comment from the US envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who were visiting Moscow for the first time since January. They flew out of Moscow soon after the talks and were due to meet Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin’s tone appeared unchanged. After three hours of talks, an aide to Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, said the Russian president had told the US pair that Russia was making “real progress” on the battlefield, was confident of achieving its goals, and stressed the necessity of addressing “all the root causes of the conflict”. Ushakov said the Americans had “outlined a number of ideas regarding possible avenues for a settlement”, but he did not say what those ideas were.
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The air war between Russia and Ukraine has intensified as troops have struggled to make progress along the 1,250km (775-mile) frontline. Russia has recently been using fast-flying, jet-powered drones, and the recurring wail of air raid sirens has become part of daily life in Kyiv. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov posted online that Putin had ordered the military not to strike Kyiv for three days, starting at midnight on Saturday. However, he said Russia had not yet agreed to a broader three-day ceasefire. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is prepared to refrain from strikes on Moscow through to Monday.
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Russian attacks killed five employees and wounded five others at an industrial facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the local military administration head, Oleksandr Hanzha. “A locksmith, an electrician, a plumber and a machinist. People of peaceful professions. They were simply working their shift. They were doing their job when enemy missiles cut off their lives.” Russia’s defence ministry said it had carried out strikes on two metallurgical plants that it claimed were sites for military production.
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A 62-year-old man was wounded, and several homes and an apartment building damaged, in a separate attack on the region’s Nikopol district, Hanzha said. The city of Dnipro and the nearby Pidhorodne community were among the areas hit. One person died and five other were injured, including two men who were hospitalised in serious condition. A sixth civilian was injured in an attack on the Nikopol district.
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Other deadly Russian attacks took place in Chuhuiv in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, on the Bucha district of Ukraine’s Kyiv region, and on a shopping centre in the southern Mykolaiv region. In Russia’s Belrogod region on the border with Ukraine, two people were killed and three others wounded by Ukrainian attacks on Saturday, local authorities said. Russia launched ballistic missiles from its Rostov and Voronezh regions and deployed 167 attack drones, Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday.
