Russia's pre-Christmas strikes trigger power cuts across Ukraine

Russia hammered Ukraine with missiles and drones in a new air attack, authorities said, killing at least three people including a child and triggering emergency power cuts across the country as Ukrainians gear up to celebrate Christmas.

Moscow's latest combined strike hit energy facilities in western regions the hardest, said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

Tuesday's attack killed two people including a four-year-old in the central Zhytomyr region and one person outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where local officials said at least five were also wounded.

Russia attacked with 635 drones and 38 missiles, Ukraine's air force said.

"This Russian strike sends an extremely clear signal about Russia's priorities," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that the strikes were across at least 13 regions.

"An attack ahead of Christmas, when people simply want to be with their families, at home, and safe."

Poland, a NATO member bordering western Ukraine, said Polish and allied aircraft were deployed to protect Polish airspace after Russian strikes targeted areas of western Ukraine near the border.

Emergency power outages

Ukraine's grid operator said most regions were experiencing emergency power outages as a result of the attack. Critical and energy infrastructure was damaged in the northern Chernihiv, western Lviv and southern Odesa regions, local authorities said.

Russia's defense ministry said that its troops had captured the settlements of Prylipka in Ukraine's Kharkiv region and Andriivka in Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russian forces also struck energy and military facilities with Kinzhal missiles, the ministry added.

Moscow has stepped up strikes on Ukrainian energy and logistics to boost pressure on Kyiv as it seeks to soften the terms of a US-backed deal that could involve painful concessions.

"Russia once again is attacking our energy infrastructure. As a result, emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of Ukrainian regions," the country's energy ministry said on Telegram.

Fires broke out in several regions as a result of the "massive missile and drone attack," Ukraine's power operator Ukrenergo said, as temperatures dipped towards freezing in most of the country.

Russia has intensified its strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa over the past several days in what Ukrainian authorities say is an attempt to completely destroy maritime logistics.

Fresh strikes sparked fires but did not result in injuries in the Black Sea city, emergency services said.

Russian strikes on the Black Sea regions have intensified, hitting bridges, ports and cutting electricity and heating to thousands in the middle of winter.

Russia and US discuss 'irritants'

The latest strikes followed weekend negotiations that the United States held in Miami with Russian and Ukrainian delegations as part of its effort to end the conflict that began in February 2022.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russian and US diplomats had held talks on removing "irritants" in relations between the two countries but the main issues remain unresolved, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Another round of such contacts is expected in early spring 2026, Ryabkov added.

US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff had hailed "constructive" discussions with both sides, but there were no signs of a breakthrough.

A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow on Monday morning as officials reported "slow progress" in talks with the United States on how to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Kyiv has not commented on the blast, the latest in a string of similar incidents, but Russian investigators said they suspected it was "linked" to "Ukrainian special forces."

The attack had the hallmarks of other assassinations of generals and pro-conflict figures that have either been claimed or are widely believed to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head of the Russian General Staff's training department, was killed when the bomb, which had been placed under his parked car, detonated in a residential quarter of southern Moscow.

'We didn't expect it'

Reporters at the scene saw a mangled white Kia SUV, its doors and back window blown out. The frame was twisted and charred from the blast.

The scene had been cordoned off by security forces, and investigators were sifting through the debris. Eyewitnesses reported a loud bang.

"We absolutely didn't expect it. We thought we were safe, and then this happens right next to us," said Tatiana, a 74-year-old local resident.

"The windows rattled, you could tell it was an explosion," said Grigory, 70, who also declined to give his surname. "We need to treat it more calmly."

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was "working through various lines of inquiry into the murder. One of them involves the possible organization of the crime by Ukrainian special services."

Sarvarov fought in the Russian army's campaigns in the North Caucasus, including Chechnya in the 1990s, according to his official biography on the defence ministry's website.

He had also been one of the figures overseeing Russian forces in Syria in 2015-16.

The Kremlin said Putin had been informed about Monday's killing, which came after three days of talks in Miami as the United States intensified its efforts to broker an end to the conflict.

'Productive and constructive'

Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and US special envoy Steve Witkoff hailed "progress" in the negotiations on Sunday.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev also met with the US team, which included Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.

Witkoff had also called those meetings "productive and constructive."

But Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said only  "slow progress is being observed" in the talks, state media reported.

An initial 28-point plan to end the conflict put forward by Trump adhered to Moscow's core demands, triggering panic in Kyiv and European capitals.

Ukraine and its allies have since been working to refine the plan, though Kyiv says it is still being asked to make massive concessions, such as giving up the entire eastern Donbass region to Russia.

Moscow has bristled at Europe's involvement, as it tries to broker a deal exclusively with Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed skepticism over whether Russia really wants to end the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and decimated eastern and southern Ukraine.

Since February 2022, Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin figures in Russia and in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.