KYIV, Ukraine â Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a "substantive phone call" with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida, aimed at ending the nearly 4-year war.
Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country's air force said Saturday morning.
Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.
At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine's Lviv region.
A soldier tests land drones Saturday in Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.
Nuclear plant temporarily cut off from power
Russia carried out a "massive missile-drone attack" on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine's national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel to avoid catastrophic nuclear incidents.
Zelenskyy said energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, noting a drone strike "burned down" the train station in the city of Fastiv in the Kyiv region.
A sea drone Magura V7 of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence equipped with surface-to-air missiles maneuvers Saturday in an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
Russia's Ministry of Defense said its air defenses shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.
Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia's Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building was damaged in a drone attack and drone debris fell on the grounds of an "industrial facility," but did not mention the refinery.
Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call "weaponizing" the cold.
The oil tanker Kairos is stranded Saturday near the Black Sea port of Ahtopol, Bulgaria, after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack.
Ship attacked by drone is stranded
Meanwhile, Bulgarian maritime authorities launched efforts Saturday to evacuate the crew of the oil tanker Kairos stranded off the Black Sea port of Ahtopol and believed to be part of the âshadow fleetâ used by Russia to evade international sanctions linked to its war in Ukraine.
The Gambian-flagged 274-meter Kairos caught fire Nov. 28 after an alleged attack by Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea near the Turkish coast. It was sailing empty from Egypt toward the Russian port of Novorossiysk. It was sanctioned by the European Union in July, followed by the U.K. and Switzerland.
The ship entered Bulgariaâs territorial waters Friday under tow by a Turkish vessel, but the mission was abruptly abandoned, leaving the tanker to drift across the sea without power before stranding less than a nautical mile off the shore.
On Saturday, Rumen Nikolov, in charge of rescue operations at the Bulgarian Maritime Agency, said that it must be established through diplomatic channels why the tanker was brought into Bulgariaâs territorial waters.
Nikolov explained that the empty tanker is stable despite the bad weather, adding there is no danger to either the crew or the environment. He said that all 10 crew members, of different nationalities, are in good condition and have enough food and water for about three days. âWhen the weather calms down, the ship will be towed to a safe place,â he added.
Slow progress on agreeing security framework
The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump's advisers and Ukrainian officials said they'd meet for a third day of talks on Saturday in Florida, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said Saturday that he was given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks. "Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace," he wrote on social media.
After Friday's talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any "real progress toward any agreement" ultimately will depend "on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace."
The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say was made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war.
Separately, officials said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.
