Ukraine updates: Russia attacks Ukrainian energy facilities

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, NATO and the EU to discuss support for his country in its war with Russia, according to Reuters and dpa news agencies.

The meeting, organized by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, will also discuss possible security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the option of sending an international peacekeeping force to Ukraine, sources told dpa.

The talks come as Europe faces a possible shift in the US approach to the conflict with Donald Trump returning to the White House in January.

Zelenskyy and some of his European allies have called for European troops to be deployed in Ukraine to deter further military action by Russia after a ceasefire.

Topless members of the Ukrainian feminist protest group Femen vandalized a giant wooden sculpture outside the United Nations in Geneva, prompting police to intervene.

The activists were protesting Russia's war against Ukraine and what they see as the UN's failure to stop the conflict.

The two women, wearing the Ukrainian flag as garters, shouted "Keep Russia out of the UN" and "Fuck Russia" as they sawed into a 12-meter-high monument known as the Broken Chair, leaving more than a dozen gashes.

The three-legged structure, a work by Swiss artist Daniel Berset, was erected on the Place des Nations in 1997 and has turned into a well-known landmark in the city of Geneva. 

A Geneva police spokesman confirmed that four people had been taken in for questioning in connection with the incident.

A German opposition politician, Roderich Kiesewetter of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), expressed his support for German peacekeepers in Ukraine.

"We are ready to supply Taurus cruise missiles, to do everything to ensure that Ukraine wins, as Friedrich Merz said," he told the news magazine Der Spiegel. "And then we are ready to send troops to secure the peace."

Kiesewetter said that the military and diplomatic conditions for a peacekeeping force are not yet in place, as there is still no cease-fire and no demarcation line in Ukraine.

"A peacekeeping mission is still a long way off, but it is wise to start planning now," he emphasized. "A new federal government led by the CDU should take part in this, also to send a signal to Moscow: We are not ruling anything out militarily, we will not be intimidated."

Western leaders have recently stepped up diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine, and there has been growing talk of the possible deployment of peacekeepers.

Moldova's parliament has declared a state of emergency in the energy sector ahead of an imminent cutoff of Russian gas supplies. The state of emergency will begin on December 16 and last 60 days.

Ukraine has said it will no longer allow the transit of Russian gas after the current agreement expires at the end of the year. 

But Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas, which flows through pipelines in Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region in the east of the country. 

In addition, most of Moldova's electricity is generated by a gas-fired power plant in Transnistria, and a planned connection to the European grid via a high-voltage line to Romania has not yet been completed.

Electricity is also currently being supplied from Romania via a smaller link that has been in operation since October. Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said in Bucharest on Thursday that an action plan was being drawn up to help Moldova.

The Kremlin praised US President-elect Donald Trump's criticism of Ukraine for striking deeper into Russian territory.

Trump criticized Ukraine's use of US-supplied missiles for strikes on Russian soil in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday.

"The statement fully aligns with our position, with our view on the reasons for escalation. That impresses us. It is obvious that Trump understands exactly what is escalating the situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Peskov also said that European discussions about the possible deployment of European troops as peacekeepers in Ukraine to guarantee a future ceasefire were premature, explaining that Russia's "prerequisites" for holding peace talks with Ukraine had not yet been met.

"We don't want a ceasefire, we want peace, after our conditions are met and all our goals are achieved," Peskov said.

Trump's claim that he could strike a deal to end the fighting in Ukraine in 24 hours has sparked speculation about a possible ceasefire before his inauguration in January.

Russia has launched a large-scale air attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Friday morning, using dozens of drones and cruise missiles.

According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing preliminary reports, nearly 200 drones and 93 missiles were fired at Ukraine, including at least one North Korean missile.

"A total of 81 missiles were shot down, 11 of which were cruise missiles intercepted by our F-16s," he wrote on social media, calling for more Western air defenses and harsher sanctions on Moscow.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also urged partners to provide more air defense systems.

"Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror. I reiterate my call for the urgent delivery of 20 NASAMS, HAWK, or IRIS-T air defense systems," he wrote on social media.

The attack reportedly targeted several regions in the west, south and east of the country. Russian forces caused "serious damage" to equipment at thermal power plants during the morning attack on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK, said.

Four people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional military governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, reported that a drone had hit a residential building.

According to Kyiv, Russia has carried out at least 11 major attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since the beginning of this year.

To cope with the power shortage, Ukraine's power company has imposed hours-long blackouts, and on Friday it announced increased restrictions.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had launched a massive strike on Ukraine's energy network as a response to Kyiv firing US-supplied ATACMS at an airfield in southern Russia this week.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday that its Eastern Grouping of forces has seized more than 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) in Ukraine over the past month, capturing seven settlements.

The ministry also said Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov had visited the Eastern grouping and inspected the troops. 

Russian forces are closing in on Pokrovsk in Ukraine's Donetsk region, a key logistics hub for the Ukrainian military. Control of the city would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front.

The United States announced a further $500 million (€478 million) package of military aid for Ukraine late on Thursday.

The package included ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs), among other assistance, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"The United States is providing another significant package of urgently needed weapons and equipment to our Ukrainian partners as they defend against Russia's ongoing attacks," Blinken said in a statement.

Washington said 10 days ago it was sending Ukraine $725 million worth of missiles, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and other weapons.

Thursday's announcement comes days after the US announced a package worth around $988 million.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that President Joe Biden had "made clear, we're going to continue to provide additional packages right up to the end of this administration."

dh/zc (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)