Three people were killed including a four-year-old child, Ukraine officials said, in a large-scale Russian drone attack on the country <\/a>just two days before Christmas.<\/p>\n The latest barrage, involving more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles<\/a>, comes as hopes of securing a US-brokered ceasefire before 25 December fade. <\/p>\n The Russian assault struck homes and the power grid<\/a> in 13 regions of Ukraine, causing widespread outages in bitterly cold sub-zero temperatures.<\/p>\n Initial reports from Ukrainian emergency services said the child died in Ukraine\u2019s northwestern Zhytomyr region, while a drone killed a woman in the Kyiv region, and another civilian death was recorded in the western Khmelnytskyi region, according to reports.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Ukrainians work to extinguish a fire following a drone strike in the Chernihiv region (Ukrainian Emergency Service)<\/p>\n Russia launched 635 drones of various types and 38 missiles, Ukraine\u2019s air force said adding that air defences stopped 587 of the drones and 34 of the missiles.<\/p>\n The bombardment demonstrates Russian president Vladimir Putin\u2019s ongoing intention of pursuing the invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram<\/a> messaging app. <\/p>\n It comes as Ukrainian and European officials continue to express concerns Putin is not sincerely engaging with the US-led peace efforts, as the war looks set to enter its fifth year in February.<\/p>\n Zelensky said on Tuesday that several draft documents, including on security guarantees, had been prepared after Ukrainian officials held talks in Miami with US counterparts on ending Russia’s war.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A drone explodes during a Russian missile and drone strike on Kyiv (Reuters)<\/p>\n \u201cThey worked productively with envoys of President Trump and several draft documents have now been prepared,\u201d the Ukrainian president wrote on X. \u201cIn particular, these include documents on security guarantees for Ukraine, on recovery, and on a basic framework for ending this war.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Russia was quick to once again pour cold water on the suggestion that progress was being made.<\/p>\n The latest dialogue between the Russians and US officials in Miami should not be seen as a breakthrough, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.<\/p>\n Calling it a \u201cworking process\u201d, Putin\u2019s close aide said the discussions were expected to continue and that Russia\u2019s priority was to obtain from the United States details of Washington\u2019s work with Europeans and Ukrainians on a possible settlement. <\/p>\n He said Moscow would then judge how far those ideas matched what he called the \u201cspirit of Anchorage\u201d.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A woman injured in Russia\u2019s overnight attack (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n US president Donald Trump had reportedly been hoping to secure an agreement before Christmas Day, having previously announced a proposal to end the war which<\/a> would force Kyiv<\/a> to give up land while compensating the United States<\/a> for upholding the peace.<\/p>\n While US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday he held \u201cproductive and constructive\u201d talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives Trump was less effusive the day after, saying: \u201cThe talks are going along.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he planned to speak to Zelensky or Putin, Trump did not say only adding that he would like to see the fighting stop.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there have been media reports of a dispute between Witkoff and another senior figure in Trump\u2019s cabinet. <\/p>\n US secretary of state Marco Rubio has grown frustrated with Witkoff, Trump\u2019s designated peace envoy, over what Rubio\u2019s allies view as attempts to sideline the state department from negotiations, NBC News reported.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are reportedly at odds over how best to resolve the conflict (Reuters)<\/p>\n In November, Witkoff travelled to Geneva ahead of schedule to begin talks with Ukrainian officials, NBC cited officials as saying.<\/p>\n Witkoff did not inform Rubio or senior state department officials of the trip, the sources said, prompting concerns that he was seeking to conduct negotiations independently.<\/p>\n \u201cThey seem to be singing off of a different sheet of music,\u201d Alexander Vershbow, the former ambassador to Nato, said. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t have a common understanding of the problems and of your adversary in a negotiation, it can\u2019t be good.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Rubio later pushed back on the report, describing Witkoff as \u201ca phenomenal person, very smart, very talented\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cNo one is out there doing independent action,\u201d Rubio told reporters. \u201cAll of it is strongly coordinated.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-650848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115770215109902498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ukrainians](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-WAR-2uwen8s6.jpeg\")
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