SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian judge on Saturday issued house arrest orders for 10 people who have been convicted and sentenced for participating in a plot to keep former President Jair Bolsonaro in power after he lost the 2022 election.
The decision by Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes came just hours after authorities in neighboring Paraguay arrested a former police commander, who also had been convicted in the plot and returned him to Brazil.
Silvinei Vasques, the former director of Brazil’s Federal Highway Police, was extradited to Brazil on Friday night, after he had secretly entered Paraguay and attempted to board a flight to El Salvador using Paraguayan documents. According to Brazilian police, Vasques tore off his ankle monitor on Thursday and drove to Paraguay in a rental car.
The 10 people subjected to house arrest orders Saturday had been facing cautionary measures, like the use of ankle monitors, or had been ordered to stay at the same location every night.
They include Filipe Martins, a former adviser to Bolsonaro. Martins’ lawyer, Jeffrey Chiquini, said on X that they will file an appeal.
“There is no greater injustice than condemning a person for the actions of another,” Chiquini said.
Bolsonaro was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
The former president, who has been serving prison time since November, has been hospitalized since Wednesday. After undergoing double hernia surgery on Thursday, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said Saturday that he's undergoing a procedure for persistent hiccups.
“It has been nine months of anguish and daily hiccups,” she said on social media.
The trials against Bolsonaro and several generals and police officers accused of participating in the plot have been closely followed in Brazil, where democracy was reinstated in 1985, after decades of military rule.
U.S. President Donald Trump initially described the proceedings against ideological ally Bolsonaro as a “witch hunt” and raised tariffs on Brazilian imports over Bolsonaro’s trial, which he described as an “international disgrace.”
The Trump administration had also placed financial sanctions against de Moraes, the lead judge in Bolsonaro’s trial. But the U.S. government appears to have softened its stance following Bolsonaro’s conviction. .
In November, Trump signed an executive order lowering tariffs on Brazilian beef and coffee, two of the country’s largest exports to the United States.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury lifted sanctions against de Moraes and his wife, as both nations continue to engage in trade negotiations.
Manuel Rueda reported from Bogota, Colombia.
Follow the AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
The shadow of a supporter of former President Jair Bolsonaro is cast on an image of him displayed outside the hospital where he was transported from prison for surgery the next day, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, a day before talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, authorities said.
Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in early morning and continued for hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on ending the nearly four-year war. Zelenskyy told reporters he and Trump plan to discuss several matters including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“This attack is Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. It really shows that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin doesn’t want peace,” Zelenskyy said after stopping in Canada to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Carney announced $1.8 billion worth of economic assistance to Ukraine that helps unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for reconstruction and development.
“The barbarism that we saw overnight, the attack of Kyiv, shows just how important that we stand with Ukraine during this difficult time," Carney said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine's forces and military-industrial enterprises.
But several residential buildings were struck.
The ministry said the strike was in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight. On Saturday afternoon, the ministry said 147 more drones were shot down over a number of Russian regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted more than 20 drones “flying towards” the Russian capital on Saturday. He didn't report any damage or casualties. It wasn't immediately clear whether those were included in the Defense Ministry's count.
In what could be viewed as an effort to further ramp up pressure on Ukraine before the Zelenskyy-Trump talks, the Kremlin on Saturday night released a video of Putin in military fatigues receiving reports from top military officials in an unidentified military command post.
Russia’s General Staff chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, reported to Putin that the Russian troops have taken full control of Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region — Russia uses the old Soviet name of the city, Dimitrov — and the city of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhzhia region.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials. Ukraine's General Staff on Saturday afternoon reported attempts by Russian forces “to push Ukrainian defenders from their positions” in a number of areas, including Myrnohrad, and Kyiv's forces repelling “enemy attempts to advance” in the areas of Huliaipole and Bilohiria.
Putin said that ”if Kyiv authorities are not willing to end the matter peacefully, we will achieve all the goals we have in the special military operation by military means.”
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on social media. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said.
Civil aviation authority Pansa later said the airports had resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he said.
More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on social media.
Olena Karpenko, 52, said she heard a man as he burned to death. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said, weeping.
Karpenko said they heard a explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, followed by a stronger blast that shook the windows of her home. Then came the strike on her building.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which hit seven locations across the capital, the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on social media.
A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said. It wasn’t immediately clear if that person was the man who burned to death.
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district, and emergency crews rushed to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, said on X on Saturday evening that the Russian attack caused “extensive power outages” in Kyiv, saying that hundreds of thousands of customers remained without power.
Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were “ as few unresolved issues as possible ” in talks with Trump, while respecting Ukraine's red lines.
Speaking by audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists, Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. He has said that in the draft peace plan, the U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance's Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies.
But key details must be worked out in a bilateral agreement.
Territorial concessions are the most sensitive of issues the two leaders will discuss, including the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never recognize any territory as Russian “under any circumstances."
Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Rob Gillies in Toronto, contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold a news conference in Halifax, N.S. on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.(Riley Smith /The Canadian Press via AP)
A rescue worker climbs onto the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A rescue worker puts out a fire of a house destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers clear the rubble at the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A psychologist of a rescue team helps en elderly woman at the hospice which was damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescuers carry the body of a victim after Russian drone hit a multi-storey apartment building during a massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
