By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, ignoring appeals from Pope Francis for a Christmas truce in the war-torn nation and around the world.
Kyiv said the attacks forced the country’s grid operator to limit power supplies on Christmas Day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Wednesday the assault from Moscow included “70 missiles,” some of them ballistic, and more than “100 attack drones.” Russia separately claimed that it downed 59 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions.
It came shortly after Pope Francis decried all violent attacks that “tortured Ukraine, particularly those that have damaged schools, hospitals, and churches throughout the Eastern European nation since it was invaded by Russia in 2022.”
He also expressed concerns about at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war who have reportedly been killed since February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some 127 of them were killed in 2024 alone, according to investigators.
The Vatican has been involved in mediations on the return of prisoners as well as Ukrainian children held in Russia, Worthy News learned from Vatican sources.
Therefore, “May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound!” Francis insisted in his public appeal on Sunday.
POWER GRID
Yet there were such signs of that Wednesday as Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, restricted electricity as a “precautionary measure” following relentless Russian attacks.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the step was necessary to “minimize the negative consequences for the energy system.”
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said in published remarks that 500,000 people in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine have been left without heat.
Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine multiple times.
Yet the Christmas Day missile barrage followed a Moscow assault five days ago on the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, for the first time in almost a month, witnesses said.
The attacks come as both sides await the return to the White House of U.S. President-elect Donald J Trump, who has pledged to end the war and suggested Zelenskiy should be “prepared to make a deal.”
Zelenskyy has suggested he is “open” to a deal but condemned perceived pro-Russia politicians in Europe, including Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who he said “is weakening Europe” by “helping” Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin finance its war against Ukraine.
MEETING PUTIN
Fico met with Putin on Sunday in a bid to secure continued access to cheap Russian fossil fuels. A significant deal that allows imports via Ukraine is due to expire at the end of the year.
“[Fico’s] key goal is to deal with Russia, and this is what benefits him. This is indeed a big security issue — both for Slovakia and the entire Europe,” Zelenskyy complained.
“Why is this leader so dependent on Moscow? What is being paid to him, and what does he pay with?” Zelenskyy wrote.
He has also lashed out at Fico’s ally, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of neighboring Hungary, who also held talks with Putin on energy and a peace deal.
Brussels accused Orbán of misusing the rotating European Union presidency that Hungary currently holds for unauthorized talks with Putin, who the EU leadership views as Europe’s enemy.
Orbán, a close ally of Trump, denies wrongdoing saying “We keep open all the communication lines to the Russians. Otherwise, there would be no chance for peace. This is a strategy. So we are proud of it.”
Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War, including numerous civilians and soldiers in recent days.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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