Issued on: 07/12/2025 - 07:30Modified: 07/12/2025 - 17:10

Russia launched a major overnight attack on the industrial Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, striking key water and heating infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. The assault came as a Ukrainian delegation had wrapped up three days of talks with US President Donald Trump’s advisers in Florida, aimed at securing an agreement to end the war. Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded.

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Russian strikes kill four as US and Ukraine officials wrap up third day of talks

Russian missile, drone and shelling attacks overnight and Sunday killed at least four people in Ukraine, after US and Ukrainian officials wrapped up a third day of talks aimed at ending the war.

A man was killed in a drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region Saturday night, local officials said, while a combined missile and drone attack on infrastructure in the central city of Kremenchuk caused power and water outages. Kremenchuk is home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries and is an industrial hub.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponising” the cold.

Swiss see key role for OSCE in Ukraine war ceasefire

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe could play a major role in monitoring a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine, Switzerland's foreign minister said in an interview out Sunday.

Switzerland will chair the OSCE in 2026 and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said Bern wants to focus on confidence-building measures, and preparing for a possible truce between Moscow and Kyiv.

"There are already concrete considerations on this: the organisation is capable of deploying several dozen people at short notice. The OSCE could observe the ceasefire, monitor the ceasefire line, monitor elections, and so on," Cassis told SonntagsBlick newspaper.

At least one person killed by overnight drone strikes

A man was killed in an overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, local officials said.

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Russian troops capture village in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, agencies report

Russian forces took control of the village of Kucherivka in Ukraine's northern Kharkiv region, state news agencies cited the Defence Ministry as saying on Sunday.

Moscow carried out group strikes on Ukrainian transport infrastructure, fuel and energy facilities and long-range drone complexes, state news agencies said.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

US envoy Kellogg says Ukraine peace deal is ‘really close’

US President Donald Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said a deal to end the Ukraine war is “really close” and now depends on resolving two main outstanding issues: the future of Ukraine’s Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Kellogg, who is due to step down in January, told the Reagan National Defense Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict were in “the last 10 metres” which he said was always the hardest.

The two main outstanding issues, Kellogg said, were on territory – primarily the future of the Donbas – and the future of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which is under Russian control.

“If we get those two issues settled, I think the rest of the things will work out fairly well,” Kellogg said on Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. “We’re really, really close.”

Kremlin welcomes end to ‘direct threat’ label in US strategy, TASS reports

The Kremlin has welcomed a move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to revise its national security strategy and stop calling Russia a “direct threat,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in remarks published by the state TASS news agency.

Since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, US strategies have designated Moscow as a major threat. However, the updated US policy, adopts a softer tone, urging limited cooperation.

In comments to the state-run news agency, Peskov said the updated strategy dropped wording that described Russia as a direct threat and instead called for cooperation with Moscow on strategic stability issues.

“We considered this a positive step,” he said, adding that Moscow would examine the document closely before drawing broader conclusions.

China and Russia hold third joint anti-missile drills on Russian territory

China and Russia held their third round of joint anti-missile drills on Russian territory in early December, China’s defence ministry said late on Saturday.

The exercises were not targeted at any third party or in response to any current international situations, according to a post on the ministry’s website.

The two countries held talks on missile defence and strategic stability last month and held artillery and anti-submarine drills in the Sea of Japan in August.

Russia and China signed a “no-limits” strategic partnership shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, pledging to conduct regular military exercises to rehearse coordination between their armed forces.

Russia says it downed 77 Ukrainian drones overnight

Russia’s air defence units have destroyed 77 Ukrainian drones launched overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

The drones were downed over seven regions in southern and central Russia and over Russian-annexed Crimea.

A power transmission tower was damaged in the Rostov region bordering Ukraine about 1,000 kilometres south of Moscow, leaving about 250 residents without electricity, Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said, adding that no one was injured.

Forty-two drones were destroyed over the Saratov region in southwestern Russia and 12 over the Rostov region.

Russian strike hits Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, cutting utilities, mayor says

Russian forces launched an overnight combined air strike on infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, causing power and water outages, its mayor Vitalii Maletskyi said in a social media post.

Located on the Dnipro River, Kremenchuk is a major industrial hub and home to one of Ukraine’s biggest oil refineries. The city has been repeatedly hit by Russian missiles, including a 2022 strike on a crowded shopping mall that killed at least 21 people.

Maletskyi said that details of consequences of the strike would be released later on Sunday after damage assessment is completed. City services were working to restore electricity, water and heating in districts where supplies were disrupted, he added.

A photo posted by the mayor showed a large blaze engulfing what looked like industrial buildings at night.

Good morning, and welcome to our live blog on the war in Ukraine.

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