Russia launched 704 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight on 6 December, hitting energy facilities, railways, and residential buildings across ten oblasts while Ukrainian officials were meeting with Trump's envoys in Miami to discuss peace, according to Ukraine's Air Force.
The attack comes as Ukrainian National Security Secretary Rustem Umerov sits across from Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at a Florida golf club, working through details of a US-brokered peace plan. Just hours earlier, both sides issued a statement noting that "real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia's readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace." Russia's response arrived not in diplomatic language but in the form of 653 attack drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 17 ballistic missiles, including three Kinzhal hypersonic weapons.
What Russia targeted overnight
Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or neutralized 615 of the 704 incoming threats, but 60 strikes still hit 29 locations across the country, Ukraine's Air Force reported. Explosions were heard in Poltava, Lutsk, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Bila Tserkva during the hours-long assault. At least eight civilians were wounded, three each in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, and two in Lviv Oblast. An 11-year-old boy was among those injured in Nikopol.
The attack hit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant's power supply for the 11th time during Russia's full-scale invasion, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The plant lost all off-site power for thirty minutes before one of its two supply lines was reconnected. DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, reported "serious damage" to its thermal plants in the sixth mass attack since October.
A railway station in flames, food warehouses burning
Russian strikes destroyed Fastiv's main railway station, a target President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called "militarily senseless." The city lies 60 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, and the attack forced Ukrzaliznytsia to reroute passenger trains. Warehouses storing food and medicine were burning in both Dnipro and Bila Tserkva, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
The damage to Ukraine's power grid was "quite severe," Ukrenergo head Vitaliy Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent. Substations and generation facilities were hit in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv oblasts. As of Saturday morning, over 600,000 consumers had lost power, and hourly blackout schedules were in place across all regions.
Talks continue as missiles fall
The barrage coincided with Ukraine's Armed Forces Day and St. Nicholas Day in the Catholic calendar. "The Russians' goal is to hurt millions of Ukrainians, and they have already fallen so low that they launch missiles at peaceful cities on St. Nicholas Day," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. "That is why additional pressure is needed."
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha was blunter. "Russia continues to disregard any peace efforts and instead strikes critical civilian infrastructure, including our energy system and railways," he wrote on X. "This shows that no decisions to strengthen Ukraine and raise pressure on Russia can be delayed."
The Miami talks are scheduled to continue Saturday, with Witkoff expected to travel to Moscow next week to present any revised proposals to Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has rejected portions of the US peace plan but has declined to disclose its own terms.
Russia destroyed over 50% of Ukraine's pre-war generating capacity in the first half of 2025 alone. Strikes have followed a systematic pattern, targeting substations, power plants, and gas facilities to maximize civilian suffering as winter temperatures drop.
