Russian Drone and Missile Strikes Leave Dozens Dead and Missing in Ukraine:

In the eastern city of Kramatorsk, a Russian drone strike killed one person and wounded five others, according to Oleksandr Honcharenko, the head of the city’s military administration. He shared the update on Facebook.Russian forces struck Ukraine’s Kherson region using rocket launchers, mortars, and drones. The Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office said a 76-year-old woman was killed, and at least two other people were injured in the attacks.Rescuers also reported that they recovered the body of one person who died after a Russian attack on a nine-storey residential building in Kramatorsk on Monday. The State Emergency Service said search operations are still ongoing. In western Ukraine, a woman who had been seriously injured during Russia’s November 19 attack on Ternopil has died. This brings the total number of deaths from that strike to 36, according to Serhii Ziubanenko, head of the Ternopil regional police. He added that four adults and one child remain missing, and forensic teams are continuing to search through the debris. In the front-line Zaporizhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov reported that another Russian drone attack damaged energy infrastructure, leaving 5,000 people without electricity. Russia’s Ministry of Defence released another video claiming its forces have captured the key city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian army says it still controls the northern part of the city and that heavy fighting is still under way. Russian President Vladimir Putin challenged both foreign and Ukrainian journalists to visit Pokrovsk and Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. He said they should “objectively inform” the world about what is happening in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Russian-flagged oil tanker MIDVOLGA-2 arrived in northern Türkiye after reporting a drone attack in the Black Sea. Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out the strike, but Kyiv has denied the claim. Putin also held a five-hour meeting in the Kremlin with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. According to Putin aide Yury Ushakov, the talks were “constructive” but did not lead to any breakthrough toward ending the war. Earlier, Putin accused European governments of undermining peace efforts by proposing terms that are “absolutely unacceptable” to Russia. He said European countries “are on the side of war.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded by saying Putin is only pretending to negotiate and is trying to wait for the Trump administration to lose interest in resolving the conflict. In Washington, Trump briefly addressed the talks during a cabinet meeting, saying, “Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation. What a mess.” Zelenskyy also said he welcomes future Irish investment in Ukraine after meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly in Dublin. Finally, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said India’s imports of Russian oil could temporarily decline. He explained that Russia plans to increase supplies using more “sophisticated” technologies to reduce the impact of Western sanctions.

NEWS