Russia again targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in ‘massive attack’
A burned and unusable car is seen as firefighters continue to extinguish the fire that broke out in a house following the Russian drone attacks on Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine on December 13, 2025. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missile and drone strikes in another “massive attack” Friday night into Saturday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.
“All necessary services are currently working to restore electricity and water supply in our communities affected by Russia’s overnight attack,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Once again, the main strike targeted our energy sector, the south of the country, and the Odesa region.”
Russia used almost 500 drones and missiles in a combined strike on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure facilities overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday morning.
In total, Russia launched 465 drones as well as 30 air-, sea- and ground-based missiles. The main direction of the strike was the Odesa region, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed.
The air force said it shot down or suppressed 417 drones and 13 missiles. However, 33 drones and eight missiles struck areas at 18 locations, while downed ones fell at three locations. An additional six missiles did not reach their targets and the places of their fall are under investigation, according to the air force.
Two people were injured in the Odesa region and thousands of families remain without electricity in the Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, according to Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy confirmed that the Russian drone and missile strikes targeted electricity generation, distribution and transmission facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.
Customers in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv regions were without power as of Saturday morning, according to the ministry.
At least five people were injured in the Mykolaiv region, where all critical infrastructure facilities had to be switched to operating from generators as a result of the “massive attack,” according to Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration.
The attack also left all traction substations without power supply in Odesa, forcing the city to temporarily suspend tram and trolleybus services, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration.
Mourners gather at Behesht Zahra Cemetery to honor protesters killed during anti-government demonstrations, on February 18, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. . (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Iranian students from several universities across the country continued protesting on Monday against the Islamic Republic’s regime for the third-consecutive day since Saturday, when schools reopened for the second semester.
Social media videos verified by ABC News show hundreds of students in Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan shouting slogans, including “Death to Khamenei” and “Woman, Life, Freedom/Iranian Republic,” targeting Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, and pushing for a regime change.
The protests appear to be the most significant to spread since the Iranian regime’s massacre across the country, in which more than 7,000 people were killed, as the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based group, reported earlier this month. ABC News cannot independently verify the group’s figures.
Groups of students also chanted “Pahlavi will return,” calling for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-based son of the former monarch of the country. Pahlavi’s call for protest in early January, 10 days after the unrest started in Tehran, escalated the nationwide protests just before the regime’s crackdown on the protesters.
Pictures of the victims of the January protests have been held by protesting students in universities. A verified video shows students gathering in the Foreign Languages department at the University of Tehran, with some holding pictures of Raha Bohlouli, a student of Italian language and literature at this school who was said to have been killed during the protests.
In a protest at Tehran’s Amirkabir University on Sunday, protesting students were confronted by pro-regime Basiji students who tried to disrupt their gathering.
Following the protests, some students of Tehran’s renown Sharif University who participated received a text message on Monday stating that they have been banned from getting into the university, the semi-official Asriran News Agency reported.
The current round of students’ protests appeared to be gathering momentum as families of thousands of the victims of January’s massacres have recently been holding 40th-day ceremonies in remembrance of their loved ones.
In Iran, one of the significant commemoration ceremonies after someone’s death is held on the 40th day after the burial, when loved ones gather to reflect on the memories of the departed. These ceremonies have traditionally been seen as potential hubs for more protests over the past decades, as the pain and loss of the families have the potential to stir anger and a demand for justice for those killed by the regime.
Dance of defiance
With the broad scope of the Islamic Republic regime’s massacre across the country, thousands of families are still mourning the loss of their loved ones. Iranian cemeteries, holy shrines and mosques — which normally are venues for the 40th-day ceremonies — have turned into scenes of the most extraordinary ways of mourning in the country, as victims’ families have been dancing to mourn as a sign of defiance.
Hundreds of videos circulating online from these ceremonies show parents, children, friends, wives and husbands of the victims dancing to upbeat music playing at mosques and holy shrine sites as a dramatic representation of their grief.
This is seen by many Iran watchers as an act of defiance, transforming a national collective pain into a form of resistance.
Videos show mourning women — even those from traditional and religious backgrounds — dancing in black, many of them without wearing a headscarf.
This comes as mosques and holy shrines have been important bases for the regime to spread the hardcore ideology its leaders stand by, which bans any kind of dance and music and scorns them as sins — let alone tolerating them in public or at holy sites.
The scenes have been witnessed at young victims’ commemoration ceremonies to highlight the happy life they deserved but were deprived of.
“No tears or words can express my pain,” a family member of one of the victims killed during protests in Tehran told ABC News on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I always dreamt of dancing at his wedding,” she said. “I felt this burning pain in my chest as I was dancing by the side of his grave. My dream was taken away by a bullet.”
The remerging of the protests comes as the United States and Islamic Republic leaders are preparing for another round of talks in Geneva on Thursday to discuss a possible nuclear deal.
Vehicles burn in the aftermath of Russian destruction caused by two KAB bombs in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk Region, Ukraine on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least three people in Ukraine were killed in Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, the Interior Ministry in Kyiv reported on Monday, as Moscow continued its nightly long-range bombardment campaign.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 149 drones and 11 ballistic missiles into the country from Sunday evening into Monday morning, of which 116 drones and an undetermined number of missiles were shot down or suppressed. The air force said that the impacts of 23 drones and some missiles were recorded across 15 locations.
A woman and a 10-year-old boy were killed when a Russian drone hit the town of Bogodukhiv, around 35 miles northwest of the city of Kharkiv, the Interior Ministry said in a post to Telegram. Three other people were injured, it added.
Another person was killed by a Russian drone attack on the southern Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (SES) said in a Telegram post. Two other people were injured, the SES said.
Elsewhere, the Interior Ministry said that nine people were injured by a Russian strike on a residential area in Shakhtarsk, in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
The latest round of strikes came soon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again called for more Western aid to replenish and expand the country’s air defense network, which is called into service every night by long-range Russian attacks.
On Sunday, several Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. “Each of our partners must recognize their strength, their ability to support Ukraine and protect lives,” the Ukrainian president said in posts to social media.
“Missiles for air defense are needed every single day. Protection against Russian ballistic attacks is needed every single day,” Zelenskyy added. “No country in the world should be left alone and without assistance under such strikes and in such a war.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 71 Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday morning.
Flight operations at two airports — one in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd and the other in the western city of Kaluga — were temporarily paused, Russia’s federal air transport agency said.
Zelenskyy on Sunday defended Ukraine’s attacks deep inside Russia. Kyiv has said in recent months that its drone and missile strikes are focused on the Russian energy sector, which Zelenskyy described as “a legitimate target.”
“We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy,” Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. “He sells this energy. He sells oil. So is it energy, or is it a military target? Honestly, it’s the same thing. He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy said that left Ukraine with two options: “We either build weapons and strike their weapons. Or we strike the source where their money is generated and multiplied. And that source is their energy sector. That is what is happening. All of this is a legitimate target for us.”
Both sides have continued long-range strikes despite recent U.S.-led peace efforts. Last week saw American, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet for a second round of trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, with all three participants describing the meetings as productive.
But the talks did not appear to achieve a breakthrough on several contentious points. Among the most difficult are the fate of Ukraine’s partially-occupied eastern Donbas region, the nature of post-war Western security guarantees for Ukraine and control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country.
On Friday, Zelenskyy told journalists that the U.S. proposed hosting the next round of trilateral talks, “likely in Miami, in a week.” Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian side “confirmed our participation.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, said in an interview with the TV BRICS outlet that Moscow sees no “bright future” in its future economic relations with the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump, presidential peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev — who is also the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund — have all suggested that a peace deal in Ukraine could facilitate a lucrative new era for American-Russian economic cooperation.
But Lavrov alleged that the U.S. had “declared their goal of economic dominance,” according to quotes published by the state-run Tass news agency.
Lavrov also explicitly criticized Trump’s administration for failing to roll back the punitive sanctions imposed on Moscow as a response to its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an operation that followed eight years of aggression beginning with Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
Trump has threatened more sanctions and tariffs on Russia if Moscow fails to make a deal with Ukraine to end its war, which this month will turn four years old.
A screen grab from a video shows Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber carries out a strike in settlement of Vilcha in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine on December 23, 2025. (The Russian Ministry of Defense/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russia launched a “massive” drone and missile strike on Ukraine overnight into Tuesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, prompting power outages in several regions around the country, according to the Energy Ministry in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 635 drones and 38 missiles into the country overnight, of which 587 drones and 34 missiles were shot down or suppressed. The impacts of missiles and drones were reported across 21 locations, the air force said.
Monday’s night’s attack was the largest Russian combined strike since Dec. 6, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News, and the third largest of the war to date.
Zelenskyy said Russia was “primarily targeting our energy sector, civilian infrastructure and literally all aspects of daily life.”
At least three people were killed — one person in Kyiv, one in Khmelnytskyi and a 4-year-old child in Zhytomyr — Zelenskyy said. At least 13 regions were targeted, he added. Local officials reported that at least 11 people were also injured across Ukraine.
The Energy Ministry said in a post to Telegram that “emergency power cuts have been introduced in a number of regions of Ukraine. As soon as the security situation allows, rescue workers and energy specialists will begin to repair the damage caused by the attack in order to restore power supply to the regions as quickly as possible.”
“Emergency power cuts will be lifted once the situation in the power grid has stabilized,” the ministry added.
Zelenskyy said the attack “sends an extremely clear signal about Russia’s priorities” as representatives from the warring parties engage in the latest round of U.S.-sponsored shuttle diplomacy intended to secure a peace deal.
“The attack comes just before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety,” he wrote. “The attack actually comes at the height of negotiations aimed at ending this war.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy said, “simply cannot accept the need to stop killing.”
“This means that the world is not putting enough pressure on Russia,” he added. “We need to react now. We need to push Russia towards peace and guaranteed security.” Zelenskyy also called for “air defense for Ukraine, funding for arms purchases, the supply of energy equipment” to help blunt Russian attacks.
Ukraine continued its own long-range strike campaign overnight, with the Russian Defense Ministry reporting the downing of at least 44 drones.
Airports in Volgograd, Grozny, Magas and Vladikavkaz were temporarily closed amid the attacks, according to Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya.
In the Stavropol region, Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov said an attempted drone attack targeted facilities in Budennovsk, causing a fire in an industrial zone.
In the Rostov region, Gov. Yury Slyusar said drone debris damaged a fence and set fire to a house under construction in the village of Grushevskaya, which was later extinguished.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators returned home after meetings with U.S. officials in Miami over the weekend.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published Tuesday that Russia is waiting for information from the U.S. on talks with Ukrainian and European officials, after which he said Moscow would assess whether any developments “match the spirit of Anchorage” — referring to the summit between Putin and President Donald Trump in Alaska in August.
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev said he had returned to Moscow after taking part in the Miami talks. Earlier, the Kremlin said he would brief Putin on his return.
Vice President JD Vance on Monday said recent talks had achieved a “breakthrough” in that “all the issues are actually out in the open.”
Peskov, though, told the Rossiya-1 television channel on Tuesday that Russia does not know what Vance was referring to.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said in social media posts on Monday that he will be briefed by the Ukrainian negotiating team on Tuesday morning. “There are 20 points of the plan,” he said. “Not everything is perfect so far, but this plan is in place.”
Zelenskyy said there is now a framework of security guarantees with European nations and the U.S. The “bilateral” and “legally binding” deal with the U.S. will need to be reviewed by Congress, he added. “As of today, this all looks quite solid and dignified. For now, however, these are working drafts prepared by our military.”
“This indicates that we are very close to a real outcome,” Zelenskyy added, noting that work was ongoing on a separate draft agreement regarding Ukraine’s economic recovery.
“There are certain things we are not prepared to accept,” Zelenskyy said. “And there are things — of that I am sure — that the Russians are not prepared to accept either. The Americans are currently continuing negotiations with Russian representatives. They will hold talks, and then we will receive feedback from them.”
