BarcelonaRussia has virulently attacked Ukraine this Friday night, just hours before the meeting between the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the two leaders will discuss a proposal for a peace agreement to present to Russia with the aim of ending the war. Specifically, Moscow has attacked Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and regions in the north-east and south of the country. At least one person has died and nineteen others have been injured.
All the victims have been registered in Kyiv, according to the mayor of the city, Vitali Klitschko. The attacks were carried out with drones and missiles, some of which were ultrasonic, of the Kinschal type, according to Ukrainian media. And they have targeted the country’s energy infrastructure.
In fact, after the offensive, 320,000 houses have been left without heating in Ukraine, despite the low temperatures. In the capital there are 2,600 apartment buildings where residents have no heating supply.
Russian attacks have been so intense that even Poland has closed two airports in the country’s northeast, and its air force has deployed military jets to control the airspace.
On the other hand, tonight Moscow’s anti-aircraft defenses have also repelled several Ukrainian attacks in southern Russia, but of little intensity. These were drone attacks in the Krasnodar and Adyghe regions, and there are no reports of casualties.
The peace agreement
The harsh Russian offensive takes place in the face of the high expectations that have generated the meeting between Trump and Zelenski scheduled for this Sunday. The Ukrainian president announced on Friday that he would travel to Florida this weekend with the aim of finalizing the last fringes of the proposed peace plan that the United States and Ukraine want to put on the table in Russia.
“The twenty-point plan we are working on is 90% ready. Our task is to ensure that everything is 100% ready,” said the Ukrainian president, referring to the above-mentioned peace plan. It is a twenty-point document that the Americans and Ukrainians have negotiated bilaterally, and that Russia has already announced that it rejects.
Between Washington and Kyiv, however, there are also discrepancies in two of the twenty points of the plan. On the one hand, in point 12, which refers to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. It is currently occupied by Russia, and the peace proposal states that it will be operated jointly by Ukraine, the United States and Russia.
And, on the other hand, in point 14 of the document, which refers to one of the thorniest issues: the transfer of territory. The text being negotiated states that Kyiv would either freeze the current front line in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson, or agree to demilitarize the area of Donetsk that Ukraine still controls to transform it into a free economic zone. For now, the Ukrainian government’s preferred option is the former.
Before traveling to the United States to finalize the peace plan, Zelenski spoke by phone with several European leaders, including the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz; the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen; the Estonian Prime Minister, Kristen Michal, and the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb. Likewise, he has spoken with the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, and with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
Donald Trump has warned this Friday, however, that any peace plan that is proposed to Russia to end the war will have to have his approval in order for it to go ahead. “[Zelenski] He will have nothing until I approve it. So we’ll see what he achieves,” he declared in an exclusive interview with the Politico portal. However, he was confident that this Sunday’s meeting will be productive, both for Zelenski and for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
