Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the US Congress on Saturday, November 7, to give Ukraine more attention and assistance after a large Russian attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region. He said damage to energy facilities had worsened the capital’s difficulties with electricity, water and heating, putting basic services at the centre of the appeal.

Damage to energy infrastructure

Zelensky said Russian forces used 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles, all aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. A substation in Kyiv region that connects the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants to Kyiv and central Ukraine was hit.

Zelensky said energy infrastructure was again the main target. He also reported damage to residential buildings, Kyiv’s northern bridge and a kindergarten. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, known as the DSNS, gave a preliminary toll of nine people injured, six of them in Kyiv.

The appeal was not limited to the immediate effects of the attack. Zelensky said steady US support was important to bringing peace closer and urged Democrats and Republicans to stay united on security, aid to Ukraine, condemnation of Russian aggression and sanctions pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A changing Congress and competing security plans

Democrats are due to take control of Congress in January after winning Tuesday’s legislative elections. Zelensky told Ukrainian television channel TSN that Ukraine’s chances of receiving additional US assistance could now increase. That was his assessment, not a guarantee of future aid.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a strong anti-Russian consensus in Congress had obstructed initiatives to normalise US-Russia relations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Donald Trump would remain in office until the end of his term and that Moscow hoped he would continue efforts to broker peace. Peskov also said Russia’s interests would be secured either by military means or peacefully if Kyiv showed willingness.

The dispute over US policy also extends to a proposed European security framework. Zelensky warned the Trump administration that it could be dangerous, saying Russia appeared to want to begin with a new security structure rather than focus on ending the war. He rejected a new Yalta-style arrangement and said Ukraine must not be divided by Russia. Zelensky said the issue mattered to Europe as a whole, even though Ukraine is not a member of the European Union or NATO.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and envoy for negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, said the US was considering five goals for a possible security pact: regular consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal steps to reduce escalation risks and a lasting framework for European stability. Kushner said any agreement should preserve each country’s sovereignty and choice of security arrangements, give no country a veto over another, and keep NATO central to European collective defence.

US-mediated negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are due to resume in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The planned talks come as Zelensky presses Washington both for support following the attack and for security arrangements that respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.