Nika Chervonna (26) said she was planning to spend Christmas with friends, but after a missile strike in her hometown, Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, on Christmas Eve and more explosions in the morning, she cancelled her plans and “decided to stay home with my dog”.

In this image provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, firefighters work on a site of an apartment building destroyed by a Russian attack in Kryvyi

Russia launched aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector “on a massive scale” overnight into Wednesday, local authorities said, amid intensified bombardment that has left Ukraine in a precarious position as the war grinds into a third winter.

Russia attacked Ukraine's energy system and cities in its eastern region with cruise and ballistic missiles on Wednesday morning, Ukraine's energy minister and local officials said. At least six people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday morning,