In a devastating pre-Christmas offensive, Russian forces unleashed a massive barrage of 635 drones and 38 missiles across Ukraine, killing at least three civilians including a 4-year-old child. The large-scale attack, which began overnight and continued into daylight hours Tuesday, targeted civilian infrastructure across 13 regions, causing widespread power outages during bitter winter conditions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the assault as a deliberate signal of Russia’s true intentions, coming just two days before Christmas and amid U.S.-led peace negotiations that he had previously described as showing ‘quite solid’ progress. The bombardment struck residential areas, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure, leaving multiple western regions without electricity and damaging over 120 homes in the Odesa region alone.
According to Ukrainian defense reports, air interception systems successfully neutralized 587 drones and 34 missiles, though significant damage occurred to the country’s energy grid. This represents the ninth major Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this year, with private energy supplier DTEK reporting this as the seventh major strike on their facilities since October. The company’s thermal power plants have endured more than 220 attacks since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, resulting in four worker fatalities and 59 injuries.
The timing of the assault appears strategically significant, occurring alongside diplomatic efforts led by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who characterized recent talks with Ukrainian and European representatives as ‘productive and constructive.’ President Zelenskyy interpreted the military escalation as Vladimir Putin’s explicit rejection of peaceful resolution, stating the attack demonstrated that Russia ‘cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing.’ Emergency services worked to restore power across affected regions as security conditions permitted, while international observers noted the stark contrast between diplomatic overtures and military actions on the ground.