Russia carried out a massive drone and missile attack early Saturday morning against Ukraine's two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, as a clear pressure tactic in the peace negotiations taking place in the United Arab Emirates. The talks, involving the United States, Ukraine, and Russia, resumed Saturday in Abu Dhabi for the second consecutive day. As a result of the massive attack, at least one person was killed and four others were wounded in the Ukrainian capital. Nineteen more were injured in the rest of the country. In Kyiv, some 88,000 homes were left without heat. The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, urged Kyiv residents for the second time this January to leave the city if they can. due to the energy crisis caused by the Russian offensive. "I am addressing the residents in all sincerity: the situation is extremely difficult and may become even more complicated. Make sure you have reserves of food, water, and essential medicines. If you have the option of leaving the city for a place with alternative sources of energy and heat, do not rule it out," he said on Friday. The thermometer has dropped to -16 degrees Celsius in recent nights in the Ukrainian capital.

Thursday morning Kiev experienced one of the most devastating attacks this year., the second heaviest since the start of the war: 31 ballistic missiles, more than 600 drones, and dozens of affected sites. The toll, which has been updated hourly, is this Friday morning at 23 dead, including several children, more than sixty injured, and civilian infrastructure destroyed: a shopping center, the headquarters of the European Union and the British Council, thousands of broken windows, cut power supplies, grounded families, and a city. The Kremlin thus paid for Donald Trump's supposed efforts to achieve peace. Various European and EU leaders reacted with indignation—they don't show as much in the face of what is happening in Gaza–, which is another form of impotence.

The death toll from Thursday's combined Russian drone and missile attack on Kiev has risen to 23, the city's military governor, Timur Tkachenko, reported on his Telegram account. He did not specify whether any minors were among them. These new victims are in addition to those announced Thursday, including four children and 63 injured (11 children). Thirty-five of the injured, including six children, have required hospitalization. The death toll could rise, as it has been doing throughout the day.

No one uttered the fabled words "I pronounce you man and wife," no guests, no wedding banquet. Roman Kunichak and Natalia Nosach wait in the lobby of the registry office of the Shevchenkivskyi district in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. It is a sober, small room with a couple of benches and a few pictures on the wall. A grumpy official asks for their ID and then disappears into an office. After a while she returns and asks them to sign this document and this one, and hands them a certificate. That's it, they are married. Austere and cold. Roman is 45 and works for a gas company. Natalia is 44 and works in marketing. They have been a couple for 22 years and have two daughters, aged 20 and 14. Despite that, they have decided to get married just now, in the middle of a war.