Russian forces rained down drones and missiles on multiple Ukrainian regions ahead of planned talks between Ukrainian and US teams inGeneva, Switzerland, on February 26.
Dozens of people are known to have been injured as a result of this attack, including children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyywroteon social media hours before the expected start of the talks.
Video shared by emergency services showed burning housing blocks. Zelenskyy said Russia fired 420 drones and 39 missiles, also hitting gas infrastructure and electrical substations.
The overnight attacks cane hours before the Geneva talks, expected to center on a prosperity package designed for Ukraines economic recovery, while laying the groundwork for a potential trilateral summit with Russia, according to both Ukrainian and US officials.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov is slated to meet with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
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Prior to the talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio -- who is not attending -- said that only Washington could drive negotiations to end the war.
"The United Nations isn't going to do it. France isn't going to do it. The EU isn't going to do it. The Russians won't even speak to them. So we don't want to walk away from -- we know that, at the end, that war in Ukraine does not have a military solution," he said.
"If we forfeit that role, no one else can do it," he added.
Trump and Zelenskyy had a call on February 25. In a social mediapostfollowing the call, Zelenskyy noted that Trumps envoys participated in the discussion, which focused heavily on the agenda for the upcoming rounds of diplomacy.
We expect this meeting to create an opportunity to move talks to the leaders level, Zelenskyy wrote, adding that Trump supports this sequence of steps. He characterized a direct leaders' summit as the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.
The meeting in Geneva comes two days after somber ceremonies across Ukraine marked thefourth anniversary of Russias full-scale invasionand followstrilateralRussia-Ukraine-US talks on February 17-18.
Little substantive information has emerged from previous meetings, beyond vague descriptions of them being difficult in some areas while achieving progress in others.
After four years of full-scale war, estimates of overall casualty figures vary. Butone recent reportput the number of killed, wounded, and missing at 1.2 million Russians and 500,000-600,000 Ukrainians.
The World Bank said on February 23 that reconstructing the Ukrainian economy would cost an estimated $588 billion over a decade.
Russia Strikes Ukraine Ahead Of Planned US-Ukrainian Talks In Geneva
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