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Russia hit Ukraine with missiles and drones in a new airstrike on Tuesday, authorities said, killing at least three people including a child and knocking out emergency power across the country as Ukrainians prepared to celebrate Christmas.
Moscow’s latest joint strike hit power centers in the western region, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said, and came after another round of US-led peace talks to end the nearly four-year-old war.
Tuesday’s attack killed two people, including a four-year-old child, in central Zhytomyr and one person outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where local officials said at least five were wounded.
“This Russian strike sends a clear signal about Russia’s priorities,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that it involved more than 30 missiles and 650 drones in at least 13 locations.
“It’s an attack before Christmas, when people just want to be with their families, at home, and be safe.”
Polish aircraft were used
A grid operator in Ukraine said many regions are experiencing emergency power outages as a result of the attack.
In the southern region of Odesa, Russia has hit the energy, port, transport, industrial and residential infrastructure, according to the head of the region Oleh Kiper.
He said a merchant ship and more than 120 homes were damaged.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held an hours-long news conference at the end of the year in which he repeated dubious claims about Ukraine starting the ongoing war between the two countries and said Russia was ready for peace.
Poland, a NATO member bordering Ukraine’s western border, said Polish and allied planes had been sent to protect Polish airspace after Russian strikes targeting areas in western Ukraine near the border.
Moscow has stepped up strikes on Ukrainian energy and supplies to increase pressure on Kyiv as it seeks to soften the terms of a US-backed deal that could include bitter concessions.
Weekend peace talks in Miami brought together US officials and Ukrainian and European envoys, as well as separate contacts with Russian representatives, as Washington explored the scope of the settlement.
Russia, which is also pressing the battlefield against the outnumbered Ukrainian military, has demanded that Ukraine withdraw its eastern Donbas region and significantly reduce its military forces before it stops fighting.
“Putin still can’t accept that he has to stop killing,” Zelenskyy wrote in X. And that means the world is not putting enough pressure on Russia. Now is the time to answer.”
