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Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky take part in a signing ceremony at Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 24.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are set to meet in Halifax today ahead of peace talks hosted by the U.S. president this weekend.
Zelensky is on his way to Florida for meetings with Donald Trump, who is trying to broker an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader’s stop in Canada follows a phone call between him and Carney on Friday.
Ukraine, U.S. negotiators discussed how to end war, Zelensky says
Canada has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February, 2022, committing $6.5-billion in military support along with humanitarian aid.
Zelensky has said the U.S-backed peace plan is about 90 per cent ready, but sticking points remain on security guarantees and other issues.
In a social media post after speaking with Carney, Zelensky said he believes much can be accomplished between Ukraine and the U.S., though he accused Russia of dragging its feet and trying to waste time.
Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, killing one person and wounding 27 others, a day before the talks, local authorities said.
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Rescue workers clear the rubble at the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 27.Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press
Explosions boomed across Kyiv for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. The attack began in the early morning hours Saturday and was continuing as day broke.
The attack came as Zelensky prepares to meet with the U.S. President in Florida on Sunday for further talks in an effort to end the nearly 4-year-old war. Zelensky said they plan to discuss issues including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air, and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones, on energy infrastructure facilities “used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” as well as “Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises.”
The ministry said the strike came in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Ukraine open to creating demilitarized zone in Donbas, Zelensky says
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said its air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight.
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on X. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said. Civil aviation authority Pansa said the two airports had since resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with almost 500 drones and 40 missiles of various types, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, he said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he added.
“There have been many questions these days. Where is the Russian response to the proposals to end the war, which were made by the United States and the world?” Zelensky said. “Russian representatives hold long talks, in reality the `Kinzal’ and `Shaheds’ speak for them.“
There were over 10 damaged residential buildings in the attack, said Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, in a post on Telegram. People were being evacuated from under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which affected seven locations across the city of Kyiv said the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko in a statement on Telegram. A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, said Klymenko.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene to contain the flames.
A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
With a file from The Associated Press
