This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on December 27, 2025, shows a building damaged during a Russian drone and missile attack in Kyiv. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICE / AFP)

Massive Russian attack on Kyiv kills one ahead of Zelensky meeting with Trump

Zelensky says missile-and-drone strike shows Moscow doesn’t want to end the war, strikes leave hundreds of thousands without power

by · The Times of Israel

KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone and missile barrage on Kyiv and its suburbs Saturday killed one person, wounded two dozen and cut off heating and electricity for hundreds of thousands of people left in freezing temperatures.

An air alert lasted several hours after loud overnight explosions, some accompanied by bright flashes that turned the sky orange, according to AFP reporters in Kyiv.

The attack killed a 47-year-old woman, Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.

“There are already 19 persons affected in the capital. Eleven persons have been hospitalized,” said Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. He added that 2,600 residential buildings and hundreds of kindergartens, schools and community buildings had lost heat.

“As of this morning, part of the left bank of the region remains without electricity. Currently, more than 320,000 consumers are without power,” Kalashnyk added.

Ukraine’s air force announced a countrywide air alert early Saturday and said that drones and missiles were moving over several Ukrainian regions.

People take shelter at a metro station during Russian air attacks in Kyiv on December 27, 2025. (Serhii Okunev / AFP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that the Russian attack on Kyiv showed that Moscow does “not want to end the war.”

“The Russians seek to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world,” said Zelensky, ahead of his departure for talks with US President Donald Trump.

A photograph taken on December 27, 2025 shows an Iranian-designed Shahed 136 (Geranium-2) drone used by the Russian Army flying over Kyiv during a Russian drone and missile attack, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

Trump and Zelensky will meet in Florida on Sunday to discuss Trump’s proposed plan to end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by Zelensky this week.

Russia accused Zelensky and his EU backers on Friday of seeking to “torpedo” the US-brokered plan.

Ukrainian rescuers stand in front of a damaged residential building following a Russian drone-and-missile attack in Kyiv, December 27, 2025. (Serhii Okunev / AFP)