Zelensky presses new Congress to keep Ukraine a top US priority

Volodymyr Zelensky wants the new US Congress to keep Ukraine on the front burner. In a Saturday social media post, the Ukrainian president said he hopes lawmakers will give his country more attention as Russian airstrikes keep hammering Ukrainian cities. Support for Kyiv, he argued, should stay high on America's policy to-do list.

Zelensky called for both parties to stand together on security, backing Ukraine, condemning Russian aggression and squeezing Putin harder with sanctions. He also slammed Russia's latest wave of strikes and warned Moscow is gearing up for more.

The appeal lands as Washington, Kyiv and Moscow prepare to sit down together. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Russia will send Igor Kostyukov, head of its military intelligence agency, to trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Interfax. The Russian delegation also includes Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, and senior General Staff officer Yuri Zhigarlovsky, plus other military and diplomatic officials.

Those talks are expected to cover ending the war, postwar security arrangements and de-escalation.

The skies stayed busy in the meantime. Ukraine's Air Forces said it intercepted 149 Russian drones overnight, out of 172 launched — Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya types — and added that it neutralized four Russian missiles. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed it took down 411 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Saratov, Samara, Tula, Crimea and the Azov and Black Seas.

On the ground in Kyiv, the damage is biting hard. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital is facing an extremely difficult energy situation after overnight attacks hit energy facilities in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions, knocking out electricity, heating and water systems. He gave no timetable for restoring services, capping a week of severe power and water outages across the city.