WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV – US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that US and Russian delegations held “productive and constructive” meetings in Florida.
“Today in Florida, the Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev held productive and constructive meetings as part of the US mediation effort toward advancing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
The American delegation included Witkoff, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Jared Kushner, and White House Senior Advisor Josh Gruenbaum, according to the post.
“We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” said Witkoff.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have taken control of the village of Toretsk in the Donetsk region and Petrovka in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The Russian army also struck Ukrainian transport infrastructure facilities, ammunition depots, and temporary deployment points of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 138 locations, the ministry said in a statement.
Russian air defense systems shot down four guided aerial bombs, one US-made HIMARS rocket, and 47 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day, it added.
Ukraine power outages
Also on Saturday, a technological failure caused widespread power outages across Ukraine, said Ukrainian authorities.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram that the incident occurred at 10:42 am local time (0842 GMT) and involved a simultaneous disconnection of the power lines linking the Romanian and Moldovan power systems, as well as the line between the western and central parts of Ukraine.
The failure triggered a cascading outage in Ukraine’s power grid and the activation of automatic protection systems at substations, Shmyhal said.
Nuclear power plant units were unloaded, and emergency power outages have been imposed in several regions of Ukraine, he said.
In the capital of Kyiv, metro services were suspended due to low voltage, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said all necessary response measures in Ukraine’s energy system have been put in place while restoration efforts are underway.