Russian attack kills one in Kyiv after Putin agrees in principle to renewed talks
One person was killed and 22 were wounded in Kyiv during an overnight Russian missile and drone attack, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday, Oct. 22. Hours earlier, the Kremlin had announced President Vladimir Putin's agreement in principle to resume US-brokered negotiations with Ukraine.
Mariam Al Mansoori
Homes, transit and ambulance station damaged
The strikes hit civilian sites across several Kyiv districts, damaging housing and transportation infrastructure, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service. Fires broke out in Dniprovskyi, on the Dnipro River's eastern bank, where authorities reported one death and six injuries. A child was among those wounded.
Service on the Kyiv Metro's green line was disrupted after infrastructure on the Pivdennyi (Southern) Bridge was damaged. In Pecherskyi, the attack damaged an ambulance station building and six ambulances, but no emergency medical workers were hurt, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and the State Emergency Service said, according to Hromadske.
An unnamed Ukrainian energy-sector source told the Kyiv Independent that energy facilities, particularly substations, were targeted in the capital. The outlet's journalists observed power and Wi-Fi outages in parts of Kyiv following a wave of ballistic missile strikes around 3:34 a.m.
Ukraine's Air Force put the overnight Russian drone launch total at 210, including 110 jet-powered Shaheds, alongside Iskander-M, S-400, Zircon and Oniks missiles, Hromadske reported. As of 9 a.m., it said air defenses had destroyed or suppressed 181 drones, 87 of them jet-powered Shaheds. Ten drones remained airborne.
Different timetables for renewed negotiations
The diplomatic announcement followed Putin's Wednesday meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin had agreed "in principle" to restart negotiations among Russia, Ukraine and the United States after Nov. 10, a week after the US midterm election.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supported another attempt at talks while expressing caution. "We'll see what happens this time," he said shortly before missile alerts sounded over Kyiv. He had said Wednesday that he wanted the meeting held "no later than the beginning of November," CNN reported, earlier than the Kremlin's proposed window.
Speaking Wednesday on Russian state channel Russia 24, Ushakov identified Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as a possible venue. He said the negotiations would take place at the technical level and address a postwar security system for both Russia and Ukraine. US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner proposed that format, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Earlier talks and an American's release
The three countries have already held three rounds of negotiations in 2026: two in Abu Dhabi, in January and February, followed by a February round in Geneva. Those meetings yielded little reported progress apart from prisoner-of-war exchanges, with Moscow and Kyiv maintaining their long-standing demands, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Wednesday's St. Petersburg meeting also brought the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher detained in Russia for more than four years. According to Witkoff, Russia freed Hubbard after US President Donald Trump asked Putin to do so; the envoy described the release as an apparent goodwill gesture by the Kremlin.
