Closing summary
It’s nearly 11pm in Kyiv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Russia launched a massive aerial attack on Christmas morning, using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force said the strikes included 78 air-, ground- and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, condemned the Russian cruise and ballistic missile strikes as “inhuman”. “Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman?” Zelenskyy said on Telegram. He said there had been hits and blackouts in several regions. “The targets are our energy. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he said.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had conducted a massive strike on critical energy infrastructure facilities that supply Ukraine’s defence industry. “The Russian Federation launched a massive strike with long-range precision weapons and strike drones against critical facilities of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that support the work of the military-industrial complex,” a statement said, adding: “The aim of the strike was achieved. All facilities have been hit.”
Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said Russia “is massively attacking the power sector” and that the transmission system operator had imposed restrictions on electricity supply to minimise the impact. Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, whose equipment was severely damaged in the attack, said it was the 13th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the 10th massive attack on the company’s energy facilities.
At least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said. Half a million people in the Kharkiv region were left without heating on Christmas Day, in temperatures just a few degrees Celsius above zero, Reuters reported.
In the southern Kherson region, one person had been killed in the last 24 hours, its governor said on Wednesday. The Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said a search-and-rescue operation after strikes on Christmas Eve found that a 43-year-old man had been killed and 17 other people wounded. Homes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro continue to be without power or heat, and patients of a hospital were evacuated, the city’s mayor said.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned the attacks. The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, called the attacks “Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a call with the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, where he thanked Japan’s government for a decision to transfer an additional $3bn secured from frozen Russian assets. The Ukrainian leader also thanked Japan for the total $12bn in humanitarian and financial aid provided to Ukraine, according to a readout of the Wednesday call.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Australia had reached out about the possible capture by the Russian army of an Australian citizen fighting with Ukrainian forces. Oscar Jenkins was reportedly captured by Russian soldiers while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed Australian diplomats had been in contact about the possible capture.
A Russian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea was the target of an “act of terrorism”, according to the vessel’s owner. The Ursa Major sank while it was sailing through international waters between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members missing.
A passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing dozens of people. The plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in Chechnya. There was speculation in Russian media that the plane could have been shot down by Russian air defences, which mistook it for a Ukrainian drone.
Pope Francis called for an end to the war in Ukraine in his traditional Christmas Day address in Rome. “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine. May there be the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation and to gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace,” the pope said.
Updated
We reported earlier that Romania had said it had not detected any Russian missile passing through its airspace to target Ukraine, as claimed by Kyiv. We have some further details now.
A statement by the Romanian defence ministry reads:
The Romanian military authorities have been informed by the Ukrainian military authorities that, at around 7:30 am, a missile of the Russian Federation forces, which would have impacted in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine, would have flown through the airspace of the Republic of Moldova and, for about two minutes, also through the airspace of Romania.
The ministry added:
From the monitoring data of Romania’s air surveillance systems and from the data provided by the assets of the Nato countries ... it was not confirmed that the aircraft crossed Romanian airspace.
Moldova’s president Maia Sandu said on X that a Russian missile had been detected in its airspace.
Updated
