Russian forces carried out a fresh ballistic missile attack on Kyiv overnight, damaging infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital, according to RaiNews. Explosions were heard on the city's outskirts, and two people were wounded in the strikes, the outlet reported.
Ukraine's military air command said on Telegram that its defences intercepted four missiles and 149 drones across several waves of attacks during the night, RaiNews reported. Moscow launched a total of 172 drones in the offensive, including 137 Shahed models powered by jet engines, according to the same statement.
The attack was the second ballistic missile assault on Kyiv in the night between 6 and 7 November, RaiNews reported, citing RBC-Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko and the capital's military command.
Why it matters
The strikes came hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was preparing another large-scale campaign against Ukraine's infrastructure, according to RaiNews. He said intelligence indicated Moscow was targeting the energy sector, bridges across the Dnipro river and civilian infrastructure.
Zelensky said Ukraine's air force and armed forces were preparing to defend against the expected assault, and appealed to partners to speed up deliveries of Patriot interceptors. He stressed that every agreement and every delivery day counted, RaiNews reported.
The attack also lands days before planned trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, and as Washington pushes a new security framework between Europe and Russia.
Warnings before the strikes
RaiNews reported that the missile barrage on Kyiv began about two hours after Zelensky's public warning. Tymur Tkachenko, governor of the Kyiv region, said a Russian drone attack in the Boryspil district started a fire in a residential building and injured one person.
In an interview with CNN, Zelensky cautioned that a US project to establish a new security arrangement between Europe and Russia could prove "dangerous," according to RaiNews. He said negotiations should focus first on ending the war and that Kyiv had seen no sign Russia was ready to act. In his view, the Kremlin is more interested in shaping a new European security architecture than in stopping the fighting.
"We do not want a new Yalta, we do not want to be divided by Russia," Zelensky said, as quoted by RaiNews.
Ukrainian strikes inside Russia
Ukraine struck several sites in Russia's Oryol, Saratov and Rostov regions overnight, including an oil refinery, RaiNews reported, citing The Kyiv Independent. A fire broke out at the Saratov refinery after a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the Exilenova Plus monitoring channel. Regional governor Roman Busargin said several people were injured.
A large fire also broke out near the Almaz military plant in the southern Russian city of Rostov and was later put out, RaiNews reported. Explosions were reported in Belgorod, where at least one person was injured, according to the Russian agency RIA Novosti.
Diplomacy and the talks ahead
President Donald Trump said "we are making a lot of progress with Russia and Ukraine," noting he had held phone calls and had meetings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, RaiNews reported. He added that Russia and Ukraine want to reach an agreement for the first time and described it as a very big deal that would involve Europe.
On Friday, Trump received Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House and afterwards spoke of a "big deal" that could cover "all of Europe," according to RaiNews.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the planned trilateral talks with members of Russia's Security Council, RaiNews reported. He said the talks should begin next week, on Tuesday, in the United Arab Emirates, and thanked Abu Dhabi's leadership for its support, including on humanitarian exchanges. Putin named the Russian negotiators who will take part, among them Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy foreign ministers Mikhail Galuzin and Sergei Ryabkov, and senior General Staff officials Igor Kostyukov and Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Separately, RaiNews reported that the death toll from an attack on a former school rose to 53, and that Pope Leo XIV, speaking to journalists on a flight to Paraguay, commented on a truce in Oleshky in Ukraine, saying there was reason for gratitude for what had been achieved but still much work to reach peace.
What to watch next is whether the Abu Dhabi talks open as scheduled on Tuesday and whether Russia follows through on the wider infrastructure campaign Ukrainian intelligence has warned about.
