Picture shows firefighters extinguishing a fire at a site of an air attack in Volyn Region of Ukraine on Saturday — AFP KYIV, Dec 06 (AFP): An overnight Russian drone and missile attack has targeted critical infrastructure, including energy sites and railways, triggering heating and water outages for thousands of households, Kyiv said on Saturday.
The latest wave of aerial strikes comes as Ukrainian negotiators are set to meet in Florida with American envoys for a third straight day of talks on the US-drafted plan on how to end the almost four-year war.
Overnight, Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles at Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said on Saturday.
"The main targets of these strikes, once again, were energy facilities. Russia's aim is to inflict suffering on millions of Ukrainians," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
A Russian drone strike hit and "burned down the main railway station building in Fastiv," a city around 70 kilometres (43 miles) southwest of Kyiv, Zelensky said.
"There were no casualties but suburban train traffic has been disrupted," Ukraine's state rail operator Ukrzaliznytsya added.
The drones and missiles had also targeted energy facilities in the Chernigiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, Kyiv officials said.
"In the Odesa region, 9,500 subscribers remain without heat supply and 34,000 subscribers remain without water supply due to damage," Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.
An emergency coordination meeting of ministers was convened in the wake of the strikes, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X.
"During the ongoing elimination of the consequences of this attack, additional rolling power outages will be required across the country" to stabilise the system while repairs continued, she added.
Despite the US-led push to end the conflict, Russia has routinely targeted Ukraine's power and heating grid since its February 2022 invasion, destroying a large part of the key civilian infrastructure.
Ukraine, US officials to
meet for third day
Ukrainian and US officials were set to hold a third straight day of talks in Miami on Saturday, with Washington saying the two sides agreed that "real progress" would depend on Russia's willingness to end the war.
President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have been meeting top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Kyiv's armed forces.
The talks come after Witkoff and Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Tuesday to discuss a US plan to end the conflict, but Moscow rejected parts of the proposal.
"Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings," said a readout of the Miami talks posted on X by Witkoff on Friday.
The US and Ukrainian officials "also agreed on the framework of security arrangements and discussed necessary deterrence capabilities to sustain a lasting peace."
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