Ukrainians Are Freezing As Russia Challenging The Ukraine-US Summit Plummels Barrage In Kyiv.

Kyiv; December 2025: Ukrainian utility workers raced to restore heat and power to large parts of Kyiv, after Russian drones and missiles knocked out municipal heating plants. At least 01 person was killed, and more than 02 dozen wounded in the overnight barrage.

With temperatures hovering around freezing, officials ordered emergency power cuts for parts of the Ukrainian capital, as a result of the December 27 attacks, which included more than 500 drones and missiles.

“This is the first time that so many drones have hit the city centre“, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters. Hours later, Ukraine appeared to launch its own aerial assault on Russian targets, with more than 110 drones fired at 07 regions, including Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed all were shot down in the unusual daytime barrage. The hours-long Russian assault targeting residential homes and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and elsewhere came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares for summit with US President Donald Trump on a Washington-backed peace plan.

The White House, which made no formal announcement about the meeting, released a schedule showing Zelenskyy and Trump meeting in Florida on the afternoon on December 28th. “I think they want to do it now, and I think that Russia wants to do it. But every time one wants to do it, the other doesn’t”, Trump told the media representatives on December 26.

En route to Washington, Zelensky stopped in Halifax, Canada, to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who labeled Russia’s recent military strikes as “barbarism” and announced an additional $2.8 billion in economic aid to Ukraine.

Following a conference call between Zelensky and European leaders, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for “a just and lasting peace that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity“. In comments to reporters traveling with him to the United States, Zelensky again signaled that there was room for compromise.

One of the critical issues now at the heart of the negotiations that accelerated last month with the release of a plan seen as heavily favorable to Moscow is the fate of the eastern Donbas region. Most of that territory is under Russian control, and Moscow has demanded that Kyiv turn over that parts Russia does not hold. That includes two major cities, Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, those which are linchpins for Ukrainian defenses in the area.

Zelensky has proposed a compromise that calls for establishing a demilitarised zone in which both Ukraine and Russia would withdraw their forces. Foreign forces would then monitor the demilitarised buffer area. The Ukrainian leader has floated the idea of holding a referendum on the plan, though he also cautioned that a 60-day cease-fire would be necessary to ensure people could vote safely.

In comments to reporters, Zelensky pushed back on an idea proposed by Moscow that Ukrainian citizens living in Russia be allowed to vote in any such referendum. Ukrainian officials say that would open the door to fraud.

The other critical issue is the fate of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant. The Zaporizhzhya region facility, which was Ukraine’s largest single source of electricity, has been under Russian control since shortly after the start of the all-out invasion in February 2022. Zelensky has proposed putting the plant under joint control between Ukraine and the United States, with Washington netting profits from the sale of the plant’s electricity, including potentially to Moscow.

Russia, which believes it has the upper hand both on the battlefield and in the peace negotiations, has showed little willingness to compromise on its hard-line demands, most of which predate the invasion.

The overnight attack on Kyiv, which included hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killed 01 person and wounded at least 28 people,

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said; large swaths of city districts on the eastern banks of the Dnieper River were without power and water, he said in a post to Telegram. Ukraine’s largest private power company said nearly a third of Kyiv had been left without electricity, later adding that 500,000 families were impacted following the Russian attack.

“Today, Russia demonstrated its reaction to peace negotiations. They have launched a massive attack on Ukraine“, Zelenskyy said. “It’s the very same Russia demonstrating this while we’re on the way to peace negotiations“.

A day earlier, Russia launched heavy glide bombs at Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, killing at least 02 people and wounded several others. Ukraine’s largest port city, Odesa, has been battered for several days in a row.

Team Maverick.