- Ukraine’s Energy Ministry says emergency power outages have been introduced in a number of regions, including Kyiv and its surrounding areas, after Russia again attacked energy facilities.
- At least three people in the Zhytomyr region, including a four-year-old child, have been killed and dozens wounded across Ukraine in Russia’s latest attacks, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Polish and allied aircraft have been deployed to ensure the safety of Polish airspace after the attacks near Poland’s border with Ukraine.
- The violence comes two days after United States-led peace talks in Miami that brought together US officials with Ukrainian and European delegations, alongside separate contacts with Russian representatives.
Ukraine says forces withdrew from Siversk
Ukraine’s General Staff says its forces withdrew from the area of Siversk, in the Donetsk region, after heavy fighting.
In a statement on Telegram, it said Russian troops had a “significant advantage” in manpower and equipment and exerted constant pressure on Ukrainian troops by staging small assaults in difficult weather conditions.
The decision to withdraw was made to “preserve the lives of our soldiers and the combat capability of the units,” it added.
In hard-hit Odesa, power outages cause ‘very difficult’ conditions
As we’ve been reporting, Ukraine’s Black Sea region of Odesa has been repeatedly targeted in Russian attacks that have left thousands of people without power.
Olena Dolhachova, a 40-year-old maths teacher in the city, told the AFP news agency that she has to use candles to do her work.
“There are attacks every week. Just when power is restored, all our schedules are disrupted again. We are left without electricity, without stability, sitting in the dark for two or three days,” she said. “It is very difficult.”
Dolhachova said the outages often mean her students cannot study in online classes. “Despite everything, we are working. We are teaching,” she added. “We are not giving up.”
Anastasiia Kulakivska, a beauty salon manager, said “seven days without electricity has become the norm” in the city.
“The house gets very cold very quickly,” said Kulakivska, adding that trying to keep medicine at the right temperature without a fridge and using a generator is increasingly difficult. “For example, when your child is sick, you need to plug in an inhaler, and it can’t run on batteries,” she told AFP.
International support ‘critical to protect civilians’ in Ukraine: UN
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Ukrainian civilians need international assistance during Russia’s escalating attacks this winter.
Here’s a quick look at the latest OCHA figures on the situation in Ukraine and the country’s needs:
- Ukraine’s Odesa region has been particularly hard hit, experiencing near-daily Russian attacks that have knocked electricity out for tens of thousands of people.
- Since June, nearly 150,000 Ukrainians have been evacuated from front-line areas, including more than 16,500 children and 5,000 people with limited mobility.
- More than one million Ukrainians near the front lines are without safe water and have limited access to protection and gender-based violence services.
- A $2.6bn appeal for aid to Ukraine this year is only half-funded at about $1.4bn.
Zelenskyy thanks EU for support after talks with von der Leyen
The Ukrainian president has welcomed a decision by European leaders last week to greenlight 90 billion euros ($105bn) in assistance to Ukraine for 2026-2027.
“We highly value the fact that the European Union is supporting Ukraine in such a way at this, in many respects, decisive diplomatic moment,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“Negotiations are currently ongoing that can fundamentally alter the situation, and it is essential to ensure the right pressure on Russia for the sake of peace – joint pressure from all partners.”
He added that he discussed “strengthening” Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table in talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the pair agreed to hold further discussions in the coming days.
For more on how European leaders agreed to the $105bn loan for Ukraine last week, check out our coverage here.
Lebanon-flagged vessel carrying Ukrainian soya beans damaged in Russia’s attack on Odesa
A Lebanon-flagged vessel carrying Ukrainian soya beans has been damaged in Russia’s attack on Odesa’s port infrastructure, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for reconstruction says.
“Once again, the Odesa region and port infrastructure came under enemy fire. Civilian warehouses and critical energy facilities were damaged. In addition, as a result of the overnight shelling, a civilian Lebanon-flagged vessel carrying Ukrainian soy was damaged in the Odesa port,” Oleksii Kuleba said in a statement on Telegram.
No casualties have been reported.
WATCH: Will Trump’s ‘imperfect plan’ for ending the Ukraine war work?
After years of support from the US for Ukraine to continue the war “as long as it takes”, the Trump administration is now pushing to end it – quickly and imperfectly.
While details are still under negotiation, they include issues such as ensuring Ukraine never joins NATO and Russia’s control over about 20 percent of Ukraine.
Al Jazeera’s The Bottom Line interviewed Kurt Volker, Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine negotiations, and retired Colonel Heino Klinck, former director of US Army international affairs, about what’s going on.
Check it out in the video below:
Why is Russia escalating attacks on Ukraine’s Odesa?
Russian forces have struck Ukraine’s southern Black Sea port of Odesa, damaging port facilities and a ship, the region’s governor says.
The attack late on Monday followed another at the weekend when Moscow carried out a sustained barrage of drones and missile attacks on the wider area around Odesa, which is home to ports crucial to Ukraine’s overseas trade and fuel imports.
They followed Russian threats to cut “Ukraine off from the sea”.
Why is Moscow targeting Odesa, and how important is the city’s port to Ukraine? See more in our explainer here.
Russia’s nuclear regulator issues licence for power unit at Zaporizhzhia plant
Rostekhnadzor, the supervisory body of the Russian government on ecological, technological and nuclear issues, has issued an operating licence for the first power unit to go online at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
A “major overhaul” of the power unit is scheduled for 2026, according to a statement from the atomic agency Rosatom carried by Russian state media, which framed the move as a “key step in ensuring the long-term and safe operation of the power unit beyond its design life”.
“Licences for power units number 2-6 are scheduled to be obtained in 2026-2027,” Rosatom said.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, has not generated electricity since shortly after its capture during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. All six of its Russian-designed VVER-1000 reactors are in cold shutdown mode but require electricity to cool them down and prevent meltdowns.
Russian authorities have previously said they intend to “revive” the plant after the war and use the electricity to feed occupied territories in Donbas as well as Russian regions.
Russian strike could collapse Chornobyl shelter, plant director says
A Russian strike could collapse the internal radiation shelter at the defunct Chornobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine, warns the director of the plant, which was the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986.
“If a missile or drone hits it directly or even falls somewhere nearby, for example, an Iskander, God forbid, it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area,” Sergiy Tarakanov told the AFP news agency.
“No one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that. That is the main threat,” he added.
A hit earlier this year punched a hole in the outer radiation shell, triggering a warning from the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had “lost its primary safety functions”. Tarakanov, however, said radiation levels at the site remained “stable and within normal limits”.
Russia’s army captured the plant at the start of its 2022 invasion before withdrawing a few weeks later.
‘Russia must be forced into peace,’ Ukraine’s foreign minister says
Andrii Sybiha says “collective transatlantic strength” is the way to get Russia to agree to a peace deal to end its nearly four-year war with Ukraine.
“This can be achieved through increasing the cost of continuing this war for the aggressor,” the Ukrainian foreign minister wrote on X, condemning Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv and other parts of the country.
Sybiha noted that Ukraine’s “energy system and critical civilian infrastructure have been the primary targets” as residents grapple with colder winter temperatures.
Today, both sides of the conflict have been exchanging attacks on each other’s energy systems. Ukraine seems to have been hit the worst, with blackouts affecting many areas of the country.
Photos: Ukrainians shelter in Kyiv metro station amid Russia’s attacks
Around 8:30 this morning (06:30 GMT), a Russian drone crashed into the roof of this building in Kyiv. We spoke with witnesses who showed us pictures of drone debris on the ground. We spoke to a father who said his son lived in this apartment.
This hasn’t just taken a toll on the population, but it’s also taking a toll on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. There are currently several regions across the country completely without power, all of this while temperatures here are plummeting.
Attacks like this one we saw last night are something Ukrainians know all too well, and have, as a result, become accustomed to responding to quite quickly.
Resilience is a word we hear a lot when we talk about Ukraine. But it’s actually one that Ukrainians reject. After four years of war, they are weary. Many of them have lost loved ones on the front lines, and now almost everyone in the country is affected by these power cuts.
While they have grown weary, they are not willing to take peace at any cost. A few sticking points for many Ukrainians – the question of territory and security guarantees, all of that very important to morale here in the country.
Russia reports another 11 Ukrainian drones downed
Russia’s Ministry of Defence says Ukrainian attacks have been ongoing on the Russian border region of Belgorod since the early hours of this morning and another two drones have been downed over it.
Five more drones were reported to have been shot down over Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula with one each neutralised over Bryansk, Kursk, Rostov and the waters of the Black Sea.
The Russian army also said its artillery units launched strikes against operators of Ukrainian drones in the area of Huliaipole in the Zaporizhia region.
Ukraine targets petrochemical plant in Russia’s Stavropol
Footage and regional reports indicate that the Ukrainian military launched an overnight attempt to damage the Stavrolen petrochemical plant in southwestern Russia.
Vladimir Vladimirov, the regional governor, confirmed in a Telegram post at dawn that Ukrainian drones attempted to attack targets in Budyonnovsk, triggering air defences.
“There are fires in the industrial zone. Emergency services are on site,” he said, adding that there were no casualties, nor any damage to homes or other infrastructure in the area.
Videos circulating online from Stavropol appeared to show large flames rising from the direction of the plant.
The Russian and Ukrainian armies have not directly commented on the incident, but as we reported earlier, the Russian army confirmed that seven Ukrainian drones were shot down over Stavropol.
Ukraine tries to hit back at Russia’s energy sector amid ongoing pressure to make concessions
Kyiv has been hitting back at Russia’s energy sector, but it doesn’t happen very often. The last incident was last week in the Krasnodar region and earlier in the Saratov region.
Ukraine uses drones to retaliate, and just today, according to the latest Ministry of Defence report, Russian air defence systems destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones over various Russian regions.
While Ukraine tries to retaliate, Russia continues to pressure Ukrainian authorities into making concessions.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev was visiting Miami for talks this last weekend. According to the Kremlin, there’s been no breakthrough; it’s still a work in progress.
The most important thing for Russia now is to get details from the US of the latest version of their peace plan, which they discussed with European and Ukrainian officials.
IOC allows Russian athlete to compete at Winter Olympics
Ski mountaineer Nikita Filippov will be allowed to compete at next year’s Winter games in Italy.
Russia and Belarus were banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Filippov will be allowed to compete in Northern Italy after the IOC issued him with an official invitation.
Russians and Belarusians cleared to compete at the Games will participate as independent athletes, without a national flag or anthem.
NATO’s Rutte urges unwavering support for Ukraine to counter growing security risks in Europe
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is urging continued support for Ukraine as 2025 comes to a close, warning that Europe would face growing security risks if its resolve falters.
To prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from attempting an attack on a NATO member, Ukraine must remain strong, Rutte said in an interview with the German news agency dpa.
He also stressed the need for NATO members to increase defence spending, in line with commitments agreed at the alliance’s summit in The Hague in June.
“If we do those two things, we are strong enough to defend ourselves, and Putin will never try,” Rutte said, referring to a potential Russian attack on the alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister said rearmament needs to happen quickly. Depending on intelligence assessments, the security situation could otherwise become dangerous as early as 2027, he said.
Rutte pointed to Russia’s military spending as evidence of the threat posed by Putin, saying Moscow is now devoting more than 40 percent of its state budget to defence.