Adam Goldsmithand
Tiffany Wertheimer
Polish warplanes scrambled from the border with Ukraine after the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, was attacked by Russian missiles and drones overnight.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the Polish Air Force had taken a “preventive” response to secure airspace after at least one person was killed and 28 injured in Kiev.
As the fighting continues, efforts to reach a peace agreement that all sides can agree to continue. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to meet President Donald Trump in Florida on the 23rd.
But after the recent Russian attack, Zelenskyy repeated his claim that Russia “does not want to end the war and is trying to use every opportunity to inflict more suffering on Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram that Russia had launched nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles toward Kiev, targeting energy and civil infrastructure.
Photos show apartment buildings with holes in them and houses burning after the strike.
Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said thousands of buildings were without power and many were without heating as temperatures plunged below freezing.
Ukraine’s National Emergency Services Agency said 68 people were evacuated from a nursing home in the eastern Darnitsky region.
“Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality they are being represented by Daggers (missiles) and Shahed (drones),” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, adding that President Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war.
“This sick activity can only be countered through really strong action. America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity,” he wrote. He urged allies to show strength against Russian aggression.
Poland, which shares a 530-kilometer-long border with western Ukraine, prepared fighter jets, ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance for the attack.
The Polish military said the move was “aimed at securing and protecting airspace, especially in areas adjacent to threatened areas.”
Late Saturday morning, it concluded there had been no violations of the country’s airspace.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones overnight.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Zelensky, EU leaders and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to hold a phone call to discuss the path to peace.
Zelensky’s new 20-point draft is a revision of the previous 28-point plan drawn up by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, but is widely seen as too favorable to Russia.
Ukraine’s president expressed optimism about the new draft, describing it as “a foundational document to end the war,” but Trump warned Politico that Zelenskyy “has nothing until I approve it.”
The draft reportedly includes security guarantees from the United States, NATO and European allies for a coordinated military response if Russia invades Ukraine again.
Control over Ukraine’s eastern Donbass has been a stumbling block in talks so far, but Zelenskyy now says a “free economic zone” could be an option.
Trump told POLITICO that he expects to see the new draft on Sunday.
“I think it will work out with him. I think it will work out with (Vladimir) Putin,” Trump said in the interview, adding that he expected to speak with the Russian president “soon.”
