President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday, during a visit to Belgrade, that Ukraine was facing a winter with basically no working thermal power plants as overnight Russian strikes left four dead, including a child, in the Kyiv region.
Speaking alongside his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, the Ukrainian leader said Moscow’s latest overnight attacks and shelling of frontline communities combined had killed 13 people in the last 24 hours.
“Russian missiles are aimed precisely at making the lives of Ukrainians unbearable,” Zelensky told reporters during his first official visit to Belgrade, highlighting that the attacks often target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine was left with “virtually no intact thermal power plants” as it braced for the upcoming heating season, Zelensky said. Those plants are important complements to the nuclear energy which also feeds its grid.
More than four years after the start of Russia’s large-scale offensive against Ukraine, the two warring countries are ramping up long-range strikes, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.
Moscow has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvos of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles, with Ukraine pleading for more US-made Patriot interceptors and other Western air-defences.
Kyiv, in turn, has been firing record numbers of drones at Russia in retaliation.
Tougher sanctions
After meeting with Vucic as part of a two-day trip to Serbia, the Ukrainian leader renewed calls for tougher sanctions to prevent the flow of missile parts into Russia from “almost every continent, including from our close partners”.
“These components arrive, and then missiles strike people, killing children, civilians and soldiers,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader said more access to interceptor missiles was needed in the face of increasing long-range strikes.
Serbia remains one of the only European nations not to sanction Russia, a longtime ally of Belgrade.
Vucic, whose government continues to supply non-military aid to Ukraine, said although they had discussed the war, his government policy had not changed.
“We did not discuss any military cooperation today or at present. What will happen when the war ends is another matter,” Vucic said.
Zelensky – who has toured much of the world seeking support since Russia’s 2022 invasion – had not visited Serbia since he became president in 2019.
The Kremlin has accused Serbian firms of selling munitions to Ukraine, a claim Vucic has repeatedly denied.
Vucic went to Ukraine for a regional summit in 2025 and visited Kyiv this year.
He has promised assistance to Ukraine but avoided signing a formal declaration of support in the war.
The Serbian leader, on Saturday, also stressed his policy of support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity remained unwavering.
Three-year-old killed
The visit came after Russia launched another overnight barrage of missiles and drones, hitting mainly the capital and its surrounds.
An AFP reporter in the capital heard a dozen explosions as Ukraine’s air force warned of the “threat of ballistic weapon use from the north”.
Zelensky said shelling had also hit across all of frontline communities, injuring dozens while a three-year-old boy was among the dead after the strike on a village outside Kyiv.
“Four more people were hospitalised: the child’s parents, his 15-year-old brother, and a neighbour who came to the family’s aid and was wounded in a double-tap strike,” Zelensky said in an earlier post to X.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
