Ahead of peace talks with Trump, Zelensky calls Putin ‘man of war’ after Russian attack on Kyiv region

CNN

By Christian Edwards, Svitlana Vlasova, Laura Sharman, Victoria Butenko, CNN

(CNN) — Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow’s huge aerial assault on Kyiv and the surrounding region proved Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “man of war,” ahead of the Ukrainian leader’s scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump in Florida.

Standing beside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Zelensky told reporters that the latest Russian attacks – the year’s longest sustained assault on the capital – “really showed Putin doesn’t want peace.”

“We want peace,” Zelensky said. “And he’s a man of war.”

The Ukrainian president arrived in Florida late on Saturday, local time, with his delegation, Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya said on X.

“Good evening, Florida!” Kyslytsya posted, sharing a photo of an aircraft with Trump’s surname displayed on its side.

Saturday’s attack on Kyiv city and the surrounding region lasted nearly 10 hours, killing at least two people and injuring 44 more, including two children, according to local authorities.

More than 40% of residential buildings in Kyiv also have no heating as a result, amid freezing temperatures, Oleksiy Kuleba, a senior government minister, said on social media.

Local residents were kept on edge into the morning, with air raid sirens blaring on and off intermittently during the day.

Speaking aboard a plane en route to the United States, Zelensky said he would be looking for a signal during talks with Trump that Ukraine would receive legally binding security guarantees as part of any peace deal.

He also repeated calls for the bolstering of Ukraine’s air defenses, saying the country needed more missiles to fend off Russia’s relentless attacks. “The support of Europeans is important to us today. We do not have enough additional air defense systems,” he said.

Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Zelensky stopped in Canada for talks with Carney, who announced a further 2.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.83 billion) in economic assistance for Ukraine.

According to a Canadian government source with knowledge of the new aid package, it will also enable the International Monetary Fund to lend Ukraine an additional $8.4 billion.

Trump said in an interview with Politico that he expects the meeting with Zelensky to “go good,” but cautioned that the Ukrainian president “doesn’t have anything until I approve it.” He added that he also expects to speak with Putin “soon, as much as I want.”

As for Putin, Russian state media service TASS cited him as saying that, “if Kyiv is not willing to resolve the matter peacefully, Russia will accomplish all the aims of the special military operation by military means,” using a euphemism for the war in Ukraine.

In total, Russia launched 519 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force.

They primarily targeted energy and civilian infrastructure in the capital city, Zelensky said.

Fires broke out across the city, engulfing a car repair shop and several residential buildings, and forcing elderly residents to evacuate a care home as flames spread, according to Kyiv Emergency Service.

Pointing to Russia’s recent engagement in talks with US representatives to end fighting in the country, Zelensky wrote on X in the wake of the attack that “Russian representatives engage in lengthy talks, but in reality, Kinzhals and ‘shaheds’ speak for them.” Kinzhals are Russian ballistic missiles and Shaheds are drones supplied by Iran to Russia.

He added: “This is the true attitude of Putin and his inner circle.”

In response to the attacks, Poland scrambled fighter jets and temporarily closed two airports, Reuters reported, citing a post by the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency on X.

US officials said they were hopeful that Sunday’s Zelensky-Trump meeting would be productive after a week of intensive efforts between US and Ukrainian negotiators. While officials did not cite a specific goal for the meeting, Zelensky told Axios Friday that he wanted to conclude a framework to end the war.

The meeting is not expected to include any European leaders, according to US and European officials.

The Ukrainians have been pushing for a meeting between Zelensky and Trump for months, European officials said. The Europeans expect a positive meeting because they describe the current dynamic between the US and Ukraine as productive. Still, they acknowledge that the outcome of any meeting with Trump is unpredictable.

“There is no low-risk scenario with Trump,” said one NATO official.

In preparation for Sunday’s meeting, Zelensky said Friday that he had spoken with the leaders of NATO, Canada, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Estonia to coordinate their positions.

Earlier this week, Zelensky offered to compromise on some of the thorniest issues that have so far stalled the US-mediated peace process with Russia. It is not clear, however, whether Zelensky’s concessions will satisfy the Kremlin.

The initial 28-point peace plan, which emerged in November following talks between the United States and Russia, was criticized by Ukraine’s allies as heavily favoring Moscow. Following weeks of talks between Ukrainian and US officials, that draft has been slimmed down to the current 20-point plan, which Zelensky has said can serve as a “foundational document on ending the war.”

Latest on peace negotiations

Zelensky told reporters that Ukraine had not received an official response from the Kremlin to the latest proposal. He said Kyiv is negotiating exclusively with Washington, which in turn is communicating with Moscow.

If Russia does not agree to the peace plan drafted by Ukraine and the United States, Zelensky suggested that more should be done to force Moscow’s hand. “If Ukraine shows its position, it is constructive – and Russia, for example, does not agree, then the (existing) pressure is not enough,” Zelensky said, adding that he wants to discuss this with Trump.

Russia’s central demands are for Ukraine to abandon its ambition to join NATO – which was a distant prospect before Moscow launched its all-out invasion of the country in February 2022 – and for Kyiv’s military to withdraw fully from Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a vast area known as the Donbas. It was here that the Kremlin started destabilizing Ukraine in 2014, helping pro-Russian separatists gain control of most of the area. The Donbas was eventually illegally annexed by Russia in September 2022.

Zelensky has offered concessions on both issues. During a wide-ranging press conference Tuesday to discuss the new 20-point peace plan, Zelensky said Ukraine was seeking security guarantees from its allies that would “mirror” NATO’s Article 5 – which requires all members to defend any member that has come under attack – but would no longer pursue full membership of the military alliance.

Zelensky also said Ukraine would be willing to withdraw its troops from parts of the Donetsk region not currently occupied by Russian forces. The Ukrainian leader said any withdrawal of troops would have to be reciprocal, with Moscow giving up as much Ukrainian territory as that ceded by Kyiv and those pockets of the Donbas becoming demilitarized as a result. Earlier this month, Zelensky noted that US negotiators wanted these territories to become “free economic zones” once all troops were withdrawn.

Asked about Zelensky’s potential willingness to consider territorial concessions for a peace deal, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN that “giving up the rest of Donetsk could contribute significantly.”

Ukraine’s constitution requires any changes to the country’s borders to be approved in a referendum. Zelensky reiterated Friday that “the fate of Ukraine should be decided by the people of Ukraine” and said Ukraine’s allies “have enough power to force Russia or to negotiate with the Russians” to ensure that any such plebiscite could be carried out safely.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Darya Tarasova, Tim Lister, Kylie Atwood, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Sophie Tanno, Caitlin Danaher and Max Saltman contributed to this article.