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Russia has carried out drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on the eve of a key meeting between the United States and Ukrainian leaders, killing at least two people and leaving a third of the city without heat, according to authorities.

Russian ballistic missiles and drones rocked Kyiv from the early hours of Saturday morning, when an air alert was in place for nearly 10 hours.

The attacks killed a 71-year-old man in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district and another person in the nearby town of Bila Tserka, according to officials. At least 32 others were wounded in Kyiv, including two children, police in Kyiv said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that during the attack, some 500 drones and 40 missiles targeted “energy facilities and civilian infrastructure”.

The Russian strikes cut power to more than a million homes in and around Kyiv, energy company DTEK said in a social media post late on Saturday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said there was no heat in one-third of the capital, where temperatures hovered around freezing (0 ​degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit).

Russian forces are “trying to cut off all Ukrainians from our critical resources just to freeze us”, Kyiv-based journalist Kristina Zelenyuk told Al Jazeera.

Upcoming peace talks

The Russian attack came as Zelenskyy prepares to meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on how to end Moscow’s nearly four-year war.

Zelenskyy said they planned to discuss security guarantees and questions over future territorial control, the main sticking points in the negotiations.

Analysts say the Russian strikes on Kyiv were aimed at sending a clear message ahead of the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting.

“It’s kind of traditional in the negotiations, since before the invasion, since 2014, whenever we have these kind of meetings, there is an escalated attack. And the point is to put pressure on the meeting,” said Ben Aris, the founder and editor-in-chief of BNE Intelli-News.

“And Putin here is underlining the fact that he has the ability to take out power stations just as temperatures fall below zero,” said Aris. The message Putin aimed to send is that if Zelenskyy “doesn’t succumb to my demands, then I have the ability to black out all of the large cities in Ukraine with these high precision and powerful missiles,” said Aris.

Before the talks with Trump, Zelenskyy met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax on Saturday. The two held a bilateral meeting before attending a joint telephone conversation with European leaders.

Speaking beside⁠ the Ukrainian leader, Carney announced ​an additional 2.5 billion Canadian dollars ‍($1.82bn) of economic aid for Ukraine, and said that peace depends on a “willing Russia”.

Later, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a statement saying that Zelenskyy had “the full support” of European leaders and of Canada, before his talks with Trump. They and the leaders of NATO and the European Union said they would work “in close coordination with the US for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, Merz added.

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa also reaffirmed the bloc’s support for Ukraine.

“We welcome all efforts leading to our shared objective – a just and lasting peace that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” European Commission President von der Leyen said on X after the call with Zelenskyy and Carney.

Costa, the president of the European Council, which represents the EU’s 27 member states, echoed her promise to continue backing Ukraine, saying on X: “The EU’s support for Ukraine will not falter. In war, in peace, in reconstruction.”

Ukraine ‘suffering’

Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donetsk region that Russian troops have failed to occupy during almost four years of war, as it seeks full control of the Donbas, comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Kyiv wants the fighting to be halted at the current lines.

The US, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy told US news site Axios on Friday that he would seek a stronger position for Ukraine, but could put the US-backed plan to a referendum if necessary.

Both Zelenskyy and Trump have expressed optimism about the meeting, with the Ukrainian leader saying that most components of a US-Ukraine agreement had been ironed out and that he hopes to finalise a framework on Sunday.

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelenskyy posted on social media on Friday.

But the attack on Saturday appeared to alter Zelenskyy’s tone. In a post following the aerial barrage, he said that Russia’s leadership “does not want to end the war”, and that their drones and missiles speak louder than any “lengthy talks” they engaged in.

Russia’s leadership aims “to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world”, said Zelenskyy.

The Russian president levied similar criticism.

According to the Interfax and TASS news agencies, Putin said Russia could see Kyiv was in no hurry to end the conflict by peaceful means. He also threatened Russia would accomplish all goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine by force.

Separately on Saturday, Russian forces ‌reported that they had captured the ‌town of Myrnohrad ⁠in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as well as Huliaipole ‌in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, the Kremlin said on ‍its Telegram channel.

Ukraine’s military, however, said in its daily battlefield update that its forces had beaten back Russian attempts to advance in the vicinity of Myrnohrad and Huliaipole