Missiles Over Kyiv as Ukraine's Lights Go Out: A War of Attrition Before the Abu Dhabi Talks

 

Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Saturday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that every power plant in the country has now been damaged by Russian strikes. Debris from the attack damaged a residential building, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who wrote on Telegram that explosions were heard in the Kyiv suburbs and that the enemy was "hitting infrastructure with ballistic missiles". Officials continued to warn residents of further strikes hours later.

The attack is the latest in a sustained campaign against Ukraine's energy system as winter approaches. Zelenskyy told participants at the Ibero-American Summit on Thursday that "every power plant in Ukraine has suffered from Russian attacks in one way or another", adding that Moscow was using Shahed drones and missiles to strike even the energy equipment that the country's nuclear power plants depend on. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 227 attack drones overnight on November 5–6, including 86 jet-powered drones, causing power outages in seven regions.

The scale of the assault has been escalating all week. On Tuesday, Russia launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles at power plants and substations from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the western city of Rivne, according to Zelenskyy. DTEK, Ukraine's largest private generating company, said three of its five thermal power plants had been knocked offline, and Klitschko described the power situation in Kyiv as "extremely difficult", with emergency cuts in place. Ukraine says it urgently needs transformers, power cables, modern electrical equipment and generators, and Zelenskyy said on Friday that new agreements had been reached with Germany, Spain, Slovakia and other countries to supply them.

The bombardment comes just three days before US-mediated talks between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are due to open in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11, seeking a resolution to a war now in its fifth year. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine will make a proposed ceasefire covering energy infrastructure a key priority at the negotiations. In Brussels this week, officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, along with representatives of the World Bank and the investment group BlackRock, discussed Ukraine's reconstruction, public financing for 2027 and security guarantees, while the European Commission sent €4.4 billion to Kyiv under a €90 billion loan agreed by EU leaders in April.

In a rare moment of direct contact, First Lady Melania Trump brought Russian and Ukrainian representatives together at the White House on Thursday, calling on both sides to choose "humanity over war". Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy for President Vladimir Putin, attended alongside Ukrainian officials, days after a six-day humanitarian ceasefire in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky that Mrs Trump helped negotiate. Trump said he also met privately with Dmitriev. The encounter has done little to slow the fighting: on Monday, Russia twice bombed a school being used for aid distribution in the village of Komyshuvakha, near the front line in Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 33 people, while Ukrainian forces have continued striking Russian oil refineries, including a major plant in Yaroslavl.

Whether Abu Dhabi produces anything more than another round of talks is an open question, but the betting suggests guarded optimism: on Polymarket, traders put the chance of a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire agreement at around 70%, and the chance of peace talks taking place by December 3 at 97% (https://polymarket.com/event/russia-x-ukraine-ceasefire-agreement-by). On Reddit, a thread in r/worldnews on Zelenskyy's warning that every power plant has been damaged drew more than 6,500 upvotes, with commenters urging donations to Ukrainian air defence (https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1xpclx1/zelenskyy_says_russia_has_damaged_every_power/). For now, Ukrainians face another winter in the dark while diplomats prepare to talk.