KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for talks Saturday on U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year-old war as Russian attacks once again targeted the Ukrainian power grid, knocking out power and heating in freezing temperatures.
Kirilo Budanov, director of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said he arrived in the United States to discuss “the details of the peace agreement.”
Writing on the messaging app Telegram, Budanov said he would meet with Ukrainian negotiators Rustam Omerov and David Arakhamiya, along with US envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
Zelensky also said on Telegram on Saturday that the main task of the Ukrainian delegation is to convey the extent to which Russia’s ongoing strikes undermine diplomacy.
He said that the strikes “continuously exacerbate even the small opportunities for dialogue that exist. The American side must understand this.”
Zelensky’s latest comments came after he said on Friday that the delegation would try to finalize with US officials proposed peace settlement documents related to post-war security guarantees and economic recovery.
If US officials agree to the proposals, the United States and Ukraine could sign documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelensky said at a news conference in Kiev with Czech President Petr Pavel. Trump intends to be in Davos, according to organizers.
Russia will still need to consult on the proposals.
Attacks on Ukraine’s power grid exacerbate the energy crisis
Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Odessa regions overnight into Saturday, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said. The ministry wrote on its official Telegram channel that more than 20 settlements in the Kiev region were left without electricity following the attacks.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a Russian attack on a vital infrastructure facility in the city’s industrial zone on Saturday could seriously affect power and heating in Ukraine’s second-largest city. Three people were injured in the attack.
“We are talking about serious strikes on the system that keeps the city warm and lit,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that the system is “constantly operating at its limits.” He added that each new strike means that “maintaining stable supplies will become more difficult, and the recovery will be longer and more difficult.”
Zelensky said on Sunday that he had convened a special energy coordination meeting, noting that the most difficult situations regarding energy supply were in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and their surrounding areas.
He said that Ukraine needs to increase electricity imports and purchase additional equipment from partners.
Russia has hit Ukraine’s power grid, especially in the winter, throughout the war. The move aims to weaken Ukraine’s will to resist in a strategy that officials in Kiev call “winter arming.”
The new Ukrainian Energy Minister, Denis Shmyhal, said on Friday that Russia carried out 612 attacks on energy targets during the past year. This barrage has intensified in recent months, with nighttime temperatures dropping to minus 18 degrees Celsius (zero Fahrenheit).
Shmyhal said Ukraine had taken emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they needed to public heating centers set up by authorities. He said hospitals, schools and other vital infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heating supplies.
Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity to cover at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.
Morton reported from London.