President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults in months, striking at least 13 regions overnight with drones and missiles that killed three civilians, including a four\u2011year\u2011old child. The attacks damaged energy infrastructure and residential buildings, leaving thousands without electricity as winter temperatures drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukraine\u2019s air force reported intercepting dozens of drones, but officials said the sheer scale of the barrage overwhelmed defenses. In Zhytomyr, a four\u2011year\u2011old girl died when her home was hit. In Kyiv, a 76\u2011year\u2011old woman was killed and three others injured, including a teenager. Another fatality was reported in Khmelnytskyi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis was a massive strike, a clear signal about Russia\u2019s priorities,\u201d Zelensky said in a video address. \u201cThey are not interested in peace, only in terror.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defense analysts warned the attacks highlight Russia\u2019s ability to sustain long\u2011range strikes despite Western sanctions. \u201cThis is not just about military targets,\u201d said Michael Clarke, former director of the Royal United Services Institute in London. \u201cIt\u2019s about breaking civilian morale and testing NATO\u2019s resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poland scrambled fighter jets during the assault, underscoring fears of spillover into NATO territory. \u201cWe are monitoring every missile trajectory,\u201d Polish Defense Minister W\u0142adys\u0142aw Kosiniak\u2011Kamysz said. \u201cAny violation of our airspace will be treated as a direct threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humanitarian organizations expressed alarm at the timing of the strikes, which came just days before Christmas. \u201cTargeting energy facilities in freezing conditions is a violation of humanitarian norms,\u201d said Amnesty International in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On social media, Ukrainians shared images of destroyed homes and darkened city streets. One widely circulated post read, \u201cWe celebrate Christmas in the cold, but we celebrate it alive. Russia cannot take that away.\u201d<\/em> Others voiced frustration at what they see as insufficient Western support. \u201cHow many more children must die before the world acts?\u201d<\/em> a user wrote on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key opinion leaders in Europe echoed those concerns. Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the strikes should \u201caccelerate delivery of air defense systems\u201d to Ukraine. In Washington, lawmakers debated whether additional funding for Kyiv should be tied to broader U.S. defense priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attacks have reignited debate over the trajectory of the war as it enters its fourth year. For Zelensky, the tragedy underscores his message: Ukraine\u2019s survival depends not only on its own resilience but on the continued backing of its allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults in months, striking at least 13 regions overnight with drones and missiles that killed three civilians, including a four\u2011year\u2011old child. The attacks damaged energy infrastructure and residential buildings, leaving thousands without electricity as winter temperatures drop. Ukraine\u2019s air force reported intercepting dozens of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[2834,2832,2833,2835,2831,2830,2837,2836,2368],"class_list":["post-25550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","tag-civiliancasualties-2","tag-droneattack","tag-missilestrike","tag-natoresponse","tag-russianstrikes","tag-russiaukraineconflic","tag-stopthewar","tag-ukraineresilience","tag-ukrainewar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/zelesnky-ukraine-damage.png?fit=790%2C527&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25553,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25550\/revisions\/25553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}