Russia, Ukraine exchange damaging volleys ahead of trilateral talks with U.S.
CBC
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 Tuesday.
The U.S.-backed trilateral talks involving Kyiv and Moscow in Geneva are occurring just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of its much smaller neighbour, on Feb. 24. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been devastated by the conflict.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the overnight strikes on 12 Ukrainian regions that came under attack hours before the start of talks.
"It was a combined strike, specially calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector," Zelenskyy wrote on X, calling for diplomacy to be backed by "justice and strength."
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 front-line area which Moscow wants Kyiv to cede in exchange for peace.
Power infrastructure supplying Ukraine's strategic Black Sea port city of Odesa suffered "incredibly serious" damage, said private energy company DTEK.
"Repairs will take a long time to restore the equipment to working order," the company said on social media.
Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said homes in five regions had suffered power cuts as a result of the strikes and also reported disruptions to heating supply in Odesa and Sumy, a regional capital in northern Ukraine near the Russian border.
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched nearly 400 drones and 29 missiles. Most were downed, but 13 targets in Ukraine were hit, it added.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said Tuesday that it had struck the Ilsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region. The military added in a statement that the strike on the refinery, which it described as one of the largest oil facilities in southern Russia, had sparked a fire.
Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia gathered in Geneva on Tuesday for two days of U.S.-mediated peace talks that will focus on the main sticking point of land.
U.S. President Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe's biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions.
Zelenskyy called for Kyiv's allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a "real and just" peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.
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