A building set ablaze by Russian strikes on the Odesa region in southern Ukraine, December 20, 2025

Sunday’s Coverage: “A Level of Attack That No Terrorist Has Dared”

UPDATE 1601 GMT:

Russia’s attacks on February 7 cut Ukraine’s nuclear power by around 50%, says Vitaliy Zaichenko, CEO of State energy provider Ukrenergo.

Zaichenko said one substation feeding feeding nuclear plants has been restored, but the situation remains critical.

The strikes on high-voltage substations, connecting Ukraine’s three operating nuclear plants to the grid, forcing one reactor to shut down completely. Further power restrictions were implemented across the country amid the coldest winter during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

UPDATE 1510 GMT:

At least six civilians have been murdered and 41 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses intercepted 116 of 149 drones. Russia also fired 11 missiles.

In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, one person was killed and six injured in the city of Kramatorsk. In the village of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka, one civilian was slain and another wounded.

In the Kharkiv region in the south, a 41-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy was murdered and three injuring in the town of Bohodukhiv. Another Russian attack on the village of Luzhok injured an 18-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man.

In the Chernihiv region in the north, a Russian drone strike killed a 71-year-old man and injured four others in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi.

In Odesa city in the south, one person was slain and two injured.

UPDATE 1154 GMT:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the Trump Administration of refusing to implement alleged agreements over Moscow’s invasion.

Speaking with Russian TV outlet BRICS, Lavrov snapped that the Administration is pursuing a policy of “economic domination”.

The Kremlin has been promoting possible US-Russian agreements on economic projects once Russia’s seizure of part of Ukraine — with the rest of the country weakened with no effective security guarantees — is confirmed. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that the US-Russia projects could be to $12 trillion in value.

But Lavrov indicated Russian frustration that last week’s trilateral Ukraine-Russia-US talks had not confirmed acceptance of the Kremlin’s demand.

“They tell us that the Ukrainian issue needs to be resolved. In Anchorage [the Vladimir Putin-Donald Trump summit in August, we accepted the proposal of the U.S.,” Lavrov said. “They made an offer, we agreed, and the problem should have been resolved. It seems that they proposed it and we were ready — and now they are not.”

He complained that despite the Administration’s declarations about moving toward “full-scale, broad cooperation”, “In practice, everything looks the opposite: new sanctions are being introduced, and a war against (shadow fleet) tankers is being waged on the high seas.”

UPDATE 0644 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced initiatives for export of Ukrainian weapons.

Zelensky said Kyiv will open 10 export centers in Europe, including in Baltic and Northern European countries, in 2026. He added:

In mid-February, we will see the production of our drones in Germany. I will receive the first drone. This is a fully operational production line. In the UK, similar production lines are already running. These are all Ukrainian technologies.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: At least three civilians have been murdered, including a woman and a boy, and two injured in Russia’s latest drone attacks on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv and on the port city of Odesa.

In Kharkiv in the northeast of the country, emergency services recovered the bodies of a woman and a 10-year-old boy. Three other people were injured.

In Odesa, a 35-year-old man was killed. The wounded included a 19-year-old woman.

Local officials in the port city reported strikes on residential infrastructure in the assault, which began just after 12:30 a.m. At least 21 apartments and a gas pipeline were damaged. A fire broke out in a multi-story residential building, and cars were set ablaze.

Russian forces also targeted Kyiv in an apparent ballistic missile attack which began around 5:30 pm. Warnings were lifted four hours later.

At least one district lost power, but no information was given about targets that were struck.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his calls for missiles for air defense, citing the strikes on Kyiv.

“No country in the world should be left alone and without assistance under such strikes,” he explained.