Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany on December 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Kyiv:

Russia has launched a “massive attack” on Ukraine’s energy sector, a Ukrainian minister said on Wednesday, without specifying which cities were under fire. Russian cruise and ballistic missiles also struck several residential areas in the Ukrainian cities of Kryvyi Rih and Kharkiv, with reports suggesting several people were killed in the attacks.

Air raid sirens rang out over Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with the air force reporting that Russia launched Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea. 

Energy Sector Attacked

“The enemy is again massively attacking the energy sector,” Ukraine’s Minister of Energy German Galushchenko wrote on the social media platform Telegram.

Ukraine faces its toughest winter of the almost three-year war as Moscow stepped up its aerial bombardment, with its troops advancing on the frontlines in the east.

“The transmission system operator is taking the necessary measures to limit consumption to minimise the negative consequences for the energy system,” he added.

Attacks on Cities

A ballistic missile also struck an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring 15, of which, four are serious. “The monsters landed a direct hit on a four-storey residential block with 32 apartments,” the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

One man whose body had been pulled from under the rubble could not be revived by medics, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Kryvyi Rih, a steelmaking city with a pre-war population of more than 600,000, is President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown.

City of Kharkiv was also pummelled by a “massive missile attack”, Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Wednesday morning. “Kharkiv is under a massive missile attack. A series of explosions were heard in the city and there are still ballistic missiles heading towards the city,” he wrote on Telegram.

The regional governor counted seven Russian strikes, Terekhov saying at least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The regional governor counted seven Russian strikes and said casualties were still being assessed.

Christmas Attacks

“While other countries of the world are celebrating Christmas, Ukrainians are continuing to suffer from endless Russian attacks,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January. The Republican leader has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year-long conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.

Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.

Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday said its forces had shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight while the Ukrainian Air Force reported the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea, although it was not initially clear where they were headed.

Russia-US ties are at an all time low, and probably worse than the time since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when both the countries were closest to an intentional nuclear war, because of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia has warned its citizens to not visit the US since relations with Washington are confrontational, claiming that they could risk being “hunted” by American authorities.

Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the warning through a news briefing on Wednesday.

“Trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks,” she said, and described US-Russia relations as “on the verge of rupture”.

She further issued warnings to avoid travelling to Canada and to the US allies in the European Union saying, “We urge you to continue to refrain from trips to the United States of America and its allied satellite states, including, first of all, Canada and, with a few exceptions, European Union countries, during these holidays.”

In a similar way, the US has also issued a notice to its citizens on avoiding travel in Russia, saying “they may face harassment or detention by Russian security officials”.

The US has backed Ukraine with $62 billion in military aid since the war began in February 2022 and further escalating the issue, last month the US authorised Ukraine to use long-range missiles deep into Russia. This became a watershed moment in the war and the move triggered Moscow to lower its nuclear threshold.

In addition, the US has now handed Ukraine a $20 billion loan, which President Biden said “will be paid back by the interest earned from immobilized Russian sovereign assets”.

“These loans will support the people of Ukraine as they defend and rebuild their country. And our efforts make it clear: tyrants will be responsible for the damages they cause,” he added.

In any case, the White House states that it is only protecting its own interest by supplying weapons to Ukraine meanwhile Russia says the US is merely using Ukraine to weaken and ultimately destroy Russia.
 

Shannon, Ireland:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his US counterpart Joe Biden accidentally referring to him as Russian President Vladimir Putin was a mistake that could be forgotten about given all the support the US has provided to Ukraine.

Biden mistakenly referred to Zelensky as Putin at a NATO summit in Washington on Thursday before correcting himself two seconds later.

“It’s a mistake. I think the United States gave a lot of support to Ukrainians. We can forget some mistakes, I think so,” Zelensky told reporters on Saturday at Ireland’s Shannon airport where he was meeting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)