Zelenskyy will visit Turkey in a new bid to end the Russia-Ukraine war

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he will travel to Turkey this week in an attempt to jump-start negotiations on ending Russia’s invasion, which began nearly four years ago.

Turkey provided a setting for low-level talks between Ukraine and Russia earlier this year, though the only significant progress in Istanbul was on exchanging prisoners of war. U.S.-led international peace efforts have brought no breakthrough, either.

Zelenskyy said that he would be in Turkey on Wednesday, a day after visiting Spain where he hoped for pledges of new support on Tuesday.

“We are preparing to reinvigorate negotiations, and we have developed solutions that we will propose to our partners,” Zelenskyy said on social media, without providing details. “Doing everything possible to bring the end of the war closer is Ukraine’s top priority.”

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “there will be no Russian representative in Turkey" on Wednesday, although he insisted that Moscow is ready to negotiate.

“For now, these contacts are taking place without Russian participation. We will await information on what would actually be discussed in Istanbul,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to budge from his demands for putting an end to the invasion.

Heavy new American sanctions on Russia’s all-important oil industry, devised to push Putin to the negotiating table, are due to take effect on Friday. The sanctions against oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil seek to starve Putin’s war machine of cash and halt its grinding war of attrition, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Ukraine.

The measures also carry the threat of secondary penalties against anyone violating them. China and India are major importers of Russian oil.

Zelenskyy said that he would meet with senior officials in his government on Thursday, as well as with the leadership of Ukraine’s Parliament and his political party, called Servant of the People.

The Ukrainian leader was meeting later Tuesday in Madrid with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI, with a visit planned as well to Spain’s parliament.

Kicking off a busy week, Zelenskyy was in Paris on Monday where he signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 Rafale warplanes from France, along with drones and ground-to-air systems.

On the battlefield, Ukraine launched a surprise aerial attack on energy infrastructure in occupied parts of its eastern Donetsk region.

The Russian-appointed head of the partially occupied region, Denis Pushilin, on Tuesday morning reported an “unprecedented” Ukrainian attack that damaged two thermal power stations in the region and left many areas without power. A day earlier, Pushilin also reported Ukrainian drones attacking energy infrastructure in the region, denying power to around 500,000 consumers. The occupied part of the region has also endured water shortages.

Ukrainian forces, despite being heavily outnumbered, are fighting hard to prevent Russia’s army from capturing any more of Donetsk.

In Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, meanwhile, a 17-year-old girl was killed and 10 other people were wounded in a Russian missile strike on the town of Berestyn, located about 110 kilometers (70 miles) from the Russian border, regional head Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russian drones sparked multiple fires in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro last night, injuring two people, said Vladyslav Haivanenko, the head of the regional military administration. The drones damaged six residential buildings, as well as the local offices of Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, though the company said the building was empty at the time.

Ukraine’s railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said that train cars and other infrastructure were damaged in the Dnipro attack.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia fired four ballistic Iskander-M missiles, along with 114 strike and decoy drones at the country overnight.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday that its air defenses shot down 31 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is received by Spain's King Felipe VI during a meeting in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Alejandro Martinez Velez/Europa Press via AP) **SPAIN OUT**

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy waves as he arrives at the Spanish parliament alongside Congress President Francina Armengol and Senate President Pedro Rollán, left, in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via AP) **SPAIN OUT**

In this photo taken from a video provided by Russian Defense Ministry press service on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, Russian serviceman fires in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens to the Congress President Francina Armengol during his visit to the Spanish parliament in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at the Spanish parliament in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. (Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via AP)

In this photo taken from a video provided by Russian Defense Ministry press service on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, a Russian serviceman launches a drone with attached explosives at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (Sarah Meyssonnier, Pool Photo via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed a major missile and drone barrage on Ukraine overnight into Saturday, after U.S. and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet Saturday for a third day of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old war.

Following talks that made progress on a security framework for postwar Ukraine, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end the war.

Russia used 653 drones and 51 missiles in the wide-reaching overnight attack on Ukraine, which triggered air raid alerts across the country and came as Ukraine marked Armed Forces Day, the country’s air force said Saturday morning.

Ukrainian forces shot down and neutralized 585 drones and 30 missiles, the air force said, adding that 29 locations were struck.

At least eight people were wounded in the attacks, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.

Among these, at least three people were wounded in the Kyiv region, according to local officials. Drone sightings were reported as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv region.

Russia carried out a “massive missile-drone attack” on power stations and other energy infrastructure in several Ukrainian regions, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all off-site power overnight, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday, citing its Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi.

The plant is in an area that has been under Russian control since early in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is not in service, but it needs reliable power to cool its six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, to avoid any catastrophic nuclear incidents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that energy facilities were the main targets of the attacks, also noting that a drone strike had “burned down” the train station in the city of Fastiv, located in the Kyiv region.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its air defenses had shot down 116 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Saturday.

Russian Telegram news channel Astra said Ukraine struck Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery, sharing footage appearing to show a fire breaking out and plumes of smoke rising above the refinery. The Associated Press could not independently verify the video.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces later said Ukrainian forces had struck the refinery. Ryazan regional Gov. Pavel Malkov said a residential building had been damaged in a drone attack and that drone debris had fallen on the grounds of an “industrial facility,” but did not mention the refinery.

Months of Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war. Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

The latest round of attacks came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s advisers and Ukrainian officials said they’ll meet for a third day of talks on Saturday, after making progress on finding agreement on a security framework for postwar Ukraine.

Following Friday’s talks, the two sides also offered the sober assessment that any “real progress toward any agreement” ultimately will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace.”

The statement from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov came after they met for a second day in Florida on Friday. They offered only broad brushstrokes about the progress they say has been made as Trump pushes Kyiv and Moscow to agree to a U.S.-mediated proposal to end nearly four years of war. Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday that he had been given an update over the phone from Florida.

Separately, officials in London said the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany would participate in a meeting with Zelenskyy in London on Monday.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Workers and military inspect Ukrainian Fire Point's Flamingo missiles during handover to the military in an undisclosed location in Ukraine Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)