Russia on Tuesday launched massive pre-Christmas strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, killing at least three people, and triggering widespread emergency power cuts amid freezing winter conditions. Many say that seven days without electricity has become the norm in Odesa.
The attacks hit western regions hardest, prompting neighbouring Poland to scramble jets to protect its airspace after strikes near the border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 13 regions were targeted, calling the assault proof that President Vladimir Putin is not serious about peace talks.
Meanwhile the director of Ukraine’s defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant has warned that a Russian strike could cause the collapse of the radiation shelter at plant. He said a direct hit or nearby missile strike could trigger vibrations strong enough to damage the steel-and-concrete sarcophagus protecting the reactor core.
The latest strikes came a day after a Russian general was killed in a car blast in Moscow and amid separate US-led talks with both sides in Miami, which showed no breakthrough.
However Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that several draft documents, including on security guarantees, had been prepared after talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On the battlefield in the east, Russia’s army claimed to have captured settlements in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, in a grinding advance that has accelerated in recent weeks.
Photo Source: X/
@ZelenskyyUa
