As winter's chill tightens its grip on Ukraine, an alarming surge in Russian attacks has left civilians in the crosshairs, battered infrastructure, and sparked growing international concern about the country’s humanitarian situation. Over the past several days, Ukrainian officials and humanitarian agencies have recorded a relentless barrage of missiles, drones, and artillery fire targeting frontline regions and key cities, resulting in dozens of deaths, widespread injuries, and critical damage to essential services just as temperatures plunge.
According to Radio Svoboda and corroborated by regional authorities, the night of December 7 into December 8, 2025, saw Russian forces unleash a wave of violence across multiple oblasts. In a particularly intense episode, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 149 long-range drones—primarily Shahed kamikaze types and Gerbera decoy UAVs—from three directions. Ukrainian air defense units, scrambling to intercept the onslaught, managed to down or suppress 131 of these drones, but 16 managed to strike targets in 11 locations, with debris causing further destruction in at least four others.
The civilian toll has been harrowing. In the Donetsk region, regional military administration head Vadym Filashkin described a grim scene: four residents killed and several others wounded as shelling battered the Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk, and Bakhmut districts. Specifically, Lyman lost one resident, Druzhkivka saw two killed and one injured, while Kostiantynivka suffered one fatality and two injuries. “In total, over the past day, Russians shelled settlements in Donetsk region 29 times. Ninety people, including 12 children, were evacuated from the frontline,” Filashkin reported.
Kharkiv region, too, endured a punishing night. Regional head Oleh Syniehubov detailed that 10 settlements were shelled, resulting in five deaths and 11 injuries. The victims included men and women ranging in age from their late 30s to late 60s, as well as a 27-year-old man who was injured by an explosion in a forest near Boholiubivka. The violence did not spare the elderly: in the village of Staryi Saltiv, two men aged 49 and 66 lost their lives, while in Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, a 68-year-old woman and a 69-year-old man were killed. The attacks left a trail of destruction across Bohodukhiv, Kupiansk, Lozova, and Chuhuiv districts.
In Kherson region, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin reported that Russian shelling damaged 11 private houses, a post office, and a gas station. Two people were injured in the process. The following morning, a fresh round of attacks killed an 87-year-old woman and wounded a 78-year-old man and a 45-year-old man in Kherson city. Several multi-story buildings were hit, and air defenses managed to intercept seven Shahed drones overnight, preventing even greater devastation.
Sumy Oblast became another flashpoint when a Russian drone struck a nine-story apartment building in Okhtyrka late on December 7, igniting a fire and injuring seven residents. Emergency crews raced to the scene, extinguished the blaze, and began demolition of dangerously damaged structures. Five more civilians, including a 12-year-old child, were injured in shelling across other Sumy communities.
Chernihiv, a region that has repeatedly suffered under Russian fire, was again rocked when a drone exploded near an apartment building in the city center around 2:40 a.m. on December 8. The blast injured three civilians, damaged a kindergarten, businesses, cars, and a gas pipeline—causing a fire that firefighters battled into the morning. Regional head Viacheslav Chaus lamented, “There was extensive damage: a building, a kindergarten, cars, and businesses. An external gas pipeline was damaged, which caused a fire. Firefighters responded promptly.”
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was not spared. Russian strikes killed one person and injured five, including teenagers aged 13 and 14. Residential buildings, an art school, and a farming enterprise were damaged. In the Hrusivska community, an FPV drone fatally wounded a 51-year-old man, and four others, including a 14-year-old, were injured in Mezhyrichka. The city of Nikopol saw artillery and drone strikes injure a 13-year-old girl and damage more civilian structures.
Zaporizhzhia and Polohy districts faced 615 strikes on 20 settlements, injuring six people and damaging homes, vehicles, and infrastructure. Chernihiv region experienced 70 explosions, with four people injured and significant property damage. In Donetsk, attacks damaged power infrastructure, leaving large swathes of the oblast without electricity, as confirmed by the power grid operator Ukrenergo.
The impact on Ukraine’s energy grid has been devastating. The Ministry of Energy confirmed that critical facilities in at least eight regions—including Poltava, Chernihiv, and Donetsk—were struck, triggering emergency outages and scheduled power cuts. Businesses and industrial users have been placed under consumption limits, and rolling blackouts have become the norm, plunging communities into darkness as winter temperatures drop. Heating and water supplies have also been interrupted in Chernihiv, Kremenchuk, and parts of Poltava, further compounding the misery.
Health services have not escaped unscathed. In Kherson City, a World Health Organization team reported that an attack on December 4 damaged the water and gas supply to a maternity ward. Meanwhile, in the Kyiv region, an attack destroyed the railway station in Fastiv Town, disrupting transportation and access to aid.
According to the latest United Nations data, civilian deaths from long-range weapons in Ukraine have surged by 26% in 2025, with injuries up a staggering 75%. UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, speaking from New York, warned of an “alarming pattern of intensifying hostilities in frontline areas and persistent attacks on critical civilian infrastructure.” He noted, “These strikes are resulting in more power outages and disruptions to vital services nationwide.”
Humanitarian teams are scrambling to meet escalating needs. The UN humanitarian office, OCHA, has stepped up emergency aid and winter assistance, with growing demand for generators, fuel, and other supplies as communities struggle to stay warm and connected. “These latest developments raise concerns about the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine as colder weather sets in,” Dujarric cautioned.
Despite mounting evidence and international condemnation, the Russian leadership continues to deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian officials and international organizations, however, have classified these strikes as war crimes, emphasizing their intentional nature and the devastating impact on civilians.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have continued in parallel with the violence. Over the weekend, US and Ukrainian officials wrapped up a third day of talks in Florida. President Volodymyr Zelensky described a “substantive phone call” with US officials, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed cautious optimism about the Trump administration’s new national security strategy, noting statements “against confrontation and in favour of dialogue.”
As attacks intensify and winter deepens, Ukraine’s civilians are left to weather both the physical and emotional storms, relying on the resilience of their communities and the support of international partners to endure yet another season of hardship and uncertainty.