Russian attacks rock Ukraine power facilities

Missile attacks struck across Ukraine on Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow prepared for new talks next week with the US.
Russia fired 36 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region. The barrage also involved 172 drones over Kyiv and 12 other regions, wounding nine people, including a child.
Only four of the fired missiles were intercepted while air defences downed 149 drones.
Energy infrastructure around Ukraine's capital was hammered, straining Kyiv's power supply and heating systems as temperatures headed towards zero.
Several of missiles and drones hit and damaged the Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River.
Strikes on energy facilities outside Kyiv — including systems sending power from two nuclear plants to the city and Ukraine's central regions — caused serious damage, the energy ministry said.
"The capital is facing serious difficulties with its electricity, water, and heat supplies," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X, adding that substations in five other regions were also hit.
At least two people were killed and around a dozen others wounded across Ukraine in the overnight attacks, which also damaged homes, businesses and non-residential buildings, authorities said.
Moscow's defence ministry said it carried out a massive strike on what it described as targets in Ukraine's military-industrial sector, as well as energy and transport infrastructure in and around Kyiv.
Russia has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine as its ground offensive has largely stalled, pounding energy infrastructure in major cities with difficult-to-intercept missiles and drones more than 4-1/2 years into its full-scale invasion.
It has expanded its campaign in recent weeks to target Kyiv's bridges, snarling traffic in the city of more than 3 million people.
Saturday's strikes come days before a new round of three-way talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukrainian and Russian officials, as part of a US-backed peace push that has so far yielded few results.
"Russia is preparing for trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles at Ukraine's critical infrastructure," Zelenskiy said on X.
The attacks also follow recent US midterm elections that have raised hopes in Ukraine for stronger support against Russia's war from a Democratic-controlled Congress.
"We are counting on the US Congress to give more attention to Ukraine, because Russia keeps increasing the number of its attacks," Zelenskiy added.
Meanwhile, Russia's delegation to talks with the United States and Ukraine next week will include senior military officials and diplomats including Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency.
The trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi, meant to discuss ending Moscow's war against Ukraine, is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday and will be the first such talks since February.
Russia's delegation, headed again by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky as chief negotiator, will include Ryabkov for the first timeas well asYuri Zhigarlovsky, a senior General Staff officer, the report said.