Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that his country is heading into winter with almost no functioning thermal power plants, after overnight Russian strikes killed four people, including a child, in the Kyiv region.
Speaking in Belgrade beside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Mr Zelensky said a combination of Russian attacks and shelling across frontline communities had killed 13 people over the previous 24 hours.
“Russian missiles are aimed precisely at making the lives of Ukrainians unbearable,” Mr Zelensky told reporters during his first official visit to Serbia. He said energy infrastructure was frequently among the targets.
Ukraine was preparing for the coming heating season with “virtually no intact thermal power plants”, the president said.
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More than four years after Russia began its large-scale offensive against Ukraine, both sides are intensifying long-range attacks, with civilians increasingly caught in the violence.
Russia has sharply increased strikes on Kyiv in recent months, often using salvos of ballistic missiles that are difficult to intercept. Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for additional US-made Patriot systems and other Western air-defence equipment.
Ukraine has responded by launching record numbers of drones against targets in Russia.
Zelensky renews appeal for tougher sanctions
Following talks with Mr Vucic during a two-day visit to Serbia, Mr Zelensky again urged countries to tighten sanctions and stop missile components reaching 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.
He added that Ukraine urgently needed greater access to interceptor missiles as long-range attacks continued to grow in scale.
Serbia remains one of the few European countries that has not imposed sanctions on Russia, a longtime ally of Belgrade.
Aleksandar Vučić is to hold official talks with Volodymyr Zelensky today
Mr Vucic said his government would continue providing non-military assistance to Ukraine, but made clear that Serbia’s policy had not changed despite their discussion of the war.
“We did not discuss any military cooperation today or at present. What will happen when the war ends is another matter,” Mr Vucic said.
Mr Zelensky, who has travelled widely in search of international support since Russia’s 2022 invasion, had not returned to Serbia since becoming president in 2019.
The Kremlin has alleged that Serbian companies have supplied munitions to Ukraine, a charge Mr Vucic has repeatedly rejected.
Mr Vucic travelled to Ukraine for a regional summit in 2025 and visited Kyiv this year.
He has pledged assistance to Ukraine while stopping short of signing a formal declaration backing it in the war.
On Saturday, the Serbian president also said his support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity remained firm.
Three-year-old killed in Russian attack on Kyiv
The visit followed another overnight wave of Russian missile and drone attacks, concentrated largely on Kyiv and the surrounding area.
Dozens of explosions were reported in the capital as Ukraine’s air force warned of the “threat of ballistic weapon use from the north”.
Mr Zelensky said strikes had also affected frontline communities across the country, injuring dozens. A three-year-old boy was among three people killed when a strike hit the village of Pukhivka, 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,” Mr Zelensky said in an earlier post to X.
The Ukrainian president also said one person had died in a Russian attack involving six ballistic missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure in Kyiv.
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