'Massive' Russian strikes hit Ukraine energy sites in pre-Christmas attack

Large-scale Russian strikes killed at least three people and cut power to thousands in freezing winter temperatures across Ukraine on Tuesday, officials said, as U.S.-led talks to end the nearly four-year war faltered.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the pre-Christmas strikes showed that the Kremlin had no intention of ending the invasion it launched in February 2022.

Russia attacked with 635 drones and 38 missiles, Ukraine's air force said.

The strikes came a day after a Russian general was killed in a car blast in Moscow and after both sides held separate talks in Miami with U.S. officials on ending the war in Miami.

There has been no sign of an imminent breakthrough in the diplomatic push.

Zelensky said a four-year-old child was killed in the central Zhytomyr region, where a Russian drone struck a residential building.

Workers were scrambling to repair energy infrastructure hit in the attack, he said, which forced emergency power cuts across several regions in frigid winter weather.

"An attack ahead of Christmas, when people simply want to be with their families, at home, and safe. An attack carried out essentially in the midst of negotiations aimed at ending this war," he said, adding: "Putin still cannot accept that he must stop killing."

AFP