Major Russian drone, missile attack on Ukraine kills at least three, cuts power

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:55:00 +0000

A woman fills petrol into a power generator to produce electricity for a pharmacy after critical civil infrastructure was hit by a recent Russian missile and drone attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, December 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia fired more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles at Ukraine in a large-scale attack that began during the night and stretched into daylight hours Tuesday (December 23, 2025), officials said. At least three people were killed, including a 4-year-old child.

The barrage struck homes and the power grid in 13 regions of Ukraine, causing widespread outages in bitter temperatures, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, a day after he described recent progress on finding a peace deal “quite solid.”

The bombardment demonstrated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention of prosecuting the invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian and European officials have complained that Mr. Putin is not sincerely engaging with U.S.-led peace efforts.

The attack “is an extremely clear signal of Russian priorities,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “A strike before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety. A strike, in fact, in the midst of negotiations that are being conducted to end this war. Putin cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has for months been pressing for a peace agreement, but the negotiations have become entangled in the very different demands from Moscow and Kyiv.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday (December 21, 2025) he held “productive and constructive” talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives. Mr. Trump was less effusive on Monday (December 22, 2025), saying, “The talks are going along.”

Initial reports from Ukrainian emergency services said the toddler died in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region, while a drone killed a woman in the Kyiv region, and another civilian death was recorded in the western Khmelnytskyi region, according to Mr. Zelenskyy.

Authorities in the western regions of Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv, as well as the northern Sumy region, reported damage to energy infrastructure or power outages after the attack.

In the southern Odesa region, Russia struck energy, port, transport, industrial and residential infrastructure, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.

A merchant ship and over 120 homes were damaged, he said.

Published – December 23, 2025 04:25 pm IST

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Cuba Experiences Nationwide Blackout After Power Plant Failure

admin — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 02:45:29 +0000

Havana:

Cuba was plunged into a nationwide blackout on Friday after the island’s biggest power plant failed, the energy ministry said, coming on the heels of weeks of extended outages across the economically devastated country.

“The system was left without power nationwide” after the unexpected shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras power plant, Lazaro Guerra, director general of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told state television.

When the power plant shut down, “the system collapsed,” he said, adding that the government was working to restore service as soon as possible to the island’s 11 million people.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero declared an “energy emergency” after weeks of disruptions, which saw some provinces without power for up to 20 hours a day.

He suspended all non-essential public sector activities in order to prioritize electricity supply to homes.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Friday on social media platform X that the government would “not rest” until the lights were back on and the energy crisis resolved.

Worst crisis in 30 years

He blamed the situation on Cuba’s difficulties in acquiring fuel for its power plants, which he attributed to the tightening of a six-decade-long US trade embargo under former president Donald Trump.

Cuba is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, marked by sky-high inflation and shortages of food, medicine, fuel and even water.

While the authorities chiefly blame the US embargo, the island is also still feeling the aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit tourism hard.

The island’s electricity is generated by eight aging thermal power plants, some of which have broken down or are under maintenance, as well as seven floating plants leased from Turkish companies and a raft of generators.

In 2022, the island suffered months of daily hours-long power outages, culminating in a nationwide blackout on September 27 that year, caused by Hurricane Ian.

The situation eased in 2023 but in March this year, maintenance work on the Antonio Guiteras plant, which is located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, again caused rolling power cuts.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Major Russian drone, missile attack on Ukraine kills at least three, cuts power

Cuba Experiences Nationwide Blackout After Power Plant Failure