(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 05, 10:36 AM EST
Missiles rain on Ukraine after purported drone strikes in Russia
A new barrage of missiles strikes was launched against Ukraine on Monday, hitting targets across the country, including the capital city of Kyiv, officials said.
Casualties and damage from the attacks were being assessed, Ukrainian officials said.
The majority of the missiles were shot down by air defense forces, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said the Russians launched missiles from the Volgodonsk, Caspian and Black seas.
The strikes damaged two infrastructure objects in the Odesa region, leaving the area without electricity and running water, officials said. One person was hospitalized, according to Ukrainian officials.
Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said a missile hit a substation that supplies the city of Belvaevska’s pumping station with electricity.
According to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, missile strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region killed two people and injured three others, including a toddler, in the village of Novosofiyivka.
Explosion were also heard in Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kherson and Cherkasy, officials said.
The missile strikes followed reports from Russian media outlets that drones were used to bomb two military air bases in Russia, hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian officials have not claimed responsibility for the drone attacks, but Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s president, posted a cryptic tweet, saying “if you launch something very often into the airspace of other countries, sooner or later the unknown flying objects will return to the place of departure.”
Dec 02, 2:18 PM EST
No peace talks till Russian soldiers leave, Ukraine says
Ukraine said it would not consider peace talks before the last Russian soldier leaves Ukrainian territory. This comes after President Joe Biden indicating he would be willing to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin if he has legitimate interest in peace negotiations.
Ukraine also said that there must not be any peace negotiations without Ukraine, reiterating that Biden has been clear that there won’t be any talks happening without the participation of U.S. allies and Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Dec 02, 2:17 PM EST
IAEA expresses optimism over creation of protection zone around Zaporizhzhia
The International Atomic Energy Agency expressed optimism over possibly creating a safe zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant before the end of the year.
“I know that President Putin is following the process, and I do not rule out another meeting with him soon, as well as with Ukrainian President Zelensky,” IAEA Director General Rafael Rossi said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
“There is a concrete proposal on securing Zaporizhzhia and important progress has been made. …The two sides now agree on some basic principles. The first is that of protection: it means accepting that you don’t shoot ‘on’ the plant and ‘from’ the plant. The second is the recognition that the IAEA is the only possible way forward: that was the heart of my meeting with President Putin in St. Petersburg on October 11,” Rossi added.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Dec 02, 12:27 PM EST
Bloody packages with animal eyes sent to Ukrainian embassies
Packages believed to be blood-soaked and containing the eyes of animals, were sent to Ukrainian embassies worldwide, including in Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs said Friday.
The entrance to the ambassador’s residence in the Vatican was also vandalized, according to the Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs.
The Ukrainian embassy in the U.S. received a letter with a photocopy of a critical article about Ukraine. Like most other envelopes, the letter arrived along with others from the territory of an unnamed European country.
“We have reason to believe that a well-planned campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian embassies and consulates is taking place. Not being able to stop Ukraine on the diplomatic front, they are trying to intimidate us. However, I can immediately say that these attempts are useless. We will continue to work effectively for the victory of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement.
The Ukrainian embassy in Spain received a letter-bomb on Wednesday which was opened and ignited, resulting in one slight injury.
A similar envelope was sent to the U.S. embassy in Madrid, but it was detected before going off, according to Spanish officials.
All Ukrainian embassies and consulates have been placed under heightened security. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on foreign governments to guarantee maximum protection of Ukraine’s diplomatic institutions.
Dec 01, 3:28 PM EST
Biden ‘prepared to speak with Putin’ if he wants to end war
Speaking at a joint press conference with France’s Emmanuel Macron, President Joe Biden said he would be open to speaking with Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader has legitimate interest in peace negotiations. Biden, however, said he has “no immediate plans to contact Mr. Putin.”
Biden also noted that Putin has “miscalculated every single thing” when it comes to this war.
“So the question is what is his — how does he get himself out of the circumstance he’s in? I’m prepared if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do, but I’ll only do it in consultation with my NATO. I’m not going to do it on my own,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, President Macron, who has continued speaking with Putin, said it’s up to Ukraine to come to the negotiating table.
“So it’s only legitimate that President Zelenskyy sets some conditions to talk. We need to work on what could lead to a peace agreement. But it’s for him to tell us when the time comes and what the choices of the Ukrainians are,” Macron said.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Dec 01, 1:46 PM EST
Shelling in Kherson damages power lines as energy company works to finish repairs
Electricity was back for 60% of customers in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, but shelling overnight damaged power lines, according to the head of Ukraine’s regional energy company.
Workers are hoping to finish the repairs by the end of Thursday.
In Kyiv, 652,000 residents were subject to power outages throughout Thursday, according to the director of YASNO energy company, Serhiy Kovalenko. Kyiv’s main power grid is operating at less than 70% capacity and 20% of residents are still without power or heat.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Dec 01, 12:20 PM EST
Russia accuses US, NATO of direct involvement in war
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of being directly involved in the war in Ukraine by supplying the country with weapons and training its soldiers.
“You are training their military on your territory, on the territories of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries,” Lavrov said at a press conference Thursday.
Lavrov also claimed that Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and other key infrastructure were intended to weaken Ukraine’s military potential and derail the shipments of weapons from the West.
Lavrov also said Moscow is open to peace talks to end the conflict.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Nov 29, 11:47 AM EST
US to send $53M in energy aid to help Ukraine through winter
The U.S. will provide Ukraine with more than $53 million to acquire critical electric grid equipment to help its citizens get through the winter, the State Department announced Tuesday.
The announcement comes amid Russia’s continued attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“This new assistance is in addition to $55 million in emergency energy sector support for generators and other equipment to help restore emergency power and heat to local municipalities impacted by Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s power system,” the State Department said in a release.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Nov 28, 4:36 PM EST
UN lays out ‘dire’ situation in southern Ukraine
Denise Brown, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, traveled to the Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv over the weekend to get an update on the humanitarian issues affecting the southern part of the country, according to the U.N.
Although repairs to the area’s water system are finally able to commence, there is still a lot of work to be done to help the people in those cities, the U.N said.
“We continue to be concerned about the plight of civilians in Ukraine especially as winter sets in,” a U.N. spokesperson said in a statement.
Some heating points have already been established in Mykolaiv to help people who cannot heat their homes, according to the U.N.
“Aid workers are providing supplies and generators to make these places functional,” the U.N. said in a statement.
The agency added that donations and funding for humanitarian efforts are critical as the cold weather sets in.
Nov 25, 1:13 PM EST
Power restored in all regions, Ukraine grid operator says
All of Ukraine’s regions are now connected to the European Union’s energy system and all three nuclear power plants located in the Kyiv-controlled area are working, CEO of Ukrenergo grid operator Volodymyr Kudrytskyi announced.
“In one to two days, they will reach their normal planned capacity, and we expect to introduce planned rolling blackouts instead of emergency outages,” Kudrytskyi said.
Power is slowly returning to all Ukrainian cities, but blackouts and emergency shutdowns continue. Power issues are the worst in Kyiv, Kirivigrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Poltava and Lviv, according to Kudrytskyi.
Kyiv’s critical infrastructure receives electricity, the water supply is fully restored and heating is being restored, but 50% of residential houses remain without power. Only one-third of houses currently have heating, according to the mayor.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
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