Ukrainian rescuers working in damaged private house at the site of a Russian attack in the Kyrykivka community of the Okhtyrka district Sumy region on Tuesday --AFP KYIV, Feb 17 (Reuters/AFP): Russian forces pounded Ukrainian power infrastructure before a new round of peace talks, killing three energy workers and leaving tens of thousands of people without power and heat, officials said on Tuesday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the overnight strikes on 12 Ukrainian regions that came under attack hours before the scheduled start of US-backed trilateral talks involving Kyiv and Moscow in Geneva.
"It was a combined strike, specially calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector," Zelenskiy wrote on X, calling for diplomacy to be backed by "justice and strength."
US President Donald Trump said Monday he hopes Ukraine reaches a deal with Russia "fast" ahead of Tuesday's Washington-brokered talks in Geneva between Moscow and Kyiv.
"Ukraine better come to the table, fast," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while en route to Washington. Trump is pushing to end the conflict, unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but two previous rounds of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi did not yield any signs of a breakthrough.
Both sides said publicly the discussions were productive, but they remain far apart on the key issue of territory.
Moscow has stuck to its demands in the talks for sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine-rejected by Kyiv as tantamount to capitulation.
Trump's top envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner will be in the US delegation, while former Russian culture minister Vladimir Medinsky will lead Moscow's team.
Rustem Umerov-the head of Ukraine's National Security Council-will represent Kyiv, along with a host of other officials.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has frequently carried out attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities this winter that have knocked out power and heating.
Ukraine's deputy energy minister said the three workers were killed when a Russian drone struck their car near the Sloviansk power plant, in a frontline area which Moscow wants Kyiv to cede in exchange for peace.
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