More than a million households are without electricity in Ukraine after a barrage of overnight Russian strikes hit energy and industrial infrastructure, officials said.

Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, Ihor Klymenko, said five regions were hit and at least five people were injured, and work was under way to extinguish fires and restore supplies.

While Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have been common throughout the war, Moscow has intensified strikes as the country heads into winter.

It comes as US President Donald Trump’s overseas envoy will travel to Germany this weekend to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders for more talks on ending the war.

Steve Witkoff, who has been leading White House attempts to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, will discuss the latest version of the proposed peace agreement in Berlin.

On Saturday, Zelensky said more than 450 drones and 30 missiles were used by Russia in overnight strikes. Klymenko said the Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Chernihiv regions were hit.

Russia’s defence ministry said it used weapons including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in the strikes – which are hard to track as they can change direction mid-flight.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant temporarily lost all offsite power overnight “due to widespread military activities affecting the electrical grid”, but is now reconnected.

The plant is in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. It is not operating, but relies on a constant power supply to cool its reactors.

In Russia, regional governor Roman Busargin said two people were killed in Saratov after a drone strike hit a residential building.

The Trump administration is pushing for a deal to end the war to be in place by Christmas and has held several rounds of talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives in recent weeks, though there has been little sign a breakthrough is imminent.

It has not yet been confirmed which European leaders will attend the Berlin talks.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the meeting, said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would all take part.

The Witkoff-Zelensky meeting comes after Ukraine gave the US its revised version of a 20-point peace plan, the latest iteration of a proposal which first emerged in late November and has triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity.

The fate of territory In eastern Ukraine remains one of the most intractable topics in the negotiations, with Kyiv refusing to cede land which has been illegally occupied, and Moscow repeating its intention to take the Donbas region in full by force unless Ukraine withdraws.

Zelensky has reacted sceptically to the White House’s latest proposal on resolving the territorial question, which is for Ukraine’s army to pull out of the region and for it to be turned into a “special economic zone”.

The Ukrainian president told reporters that under the US-proposed terms, the Kremlin would undertake not to advance into the areas vacated by Ukraine’s forces, with the land between Russian-controlled parts of the Donbas and Ukraine’s defensive lines effectively turned into a demilitarised zone.

“What will restrain [Russia] from advancing? Or from infiltrating disguised as civilians?” said Zelensky.

In public, Ukraine and its allies in Europe have described the US-led talks as fruitful, and have hailed progress on securing amendments to a plan which was widely viewed as favouring Russia when it first emerged.

But there have been signs in recent weeks that Trump is losing patience with Zelensky and his backers on the continent.

In a scathing interview with Politico earlier this week, the US president labelled European leaders “weak” and renewed his calls for Ukraine to hold elections.

Zelensky said elections could be held within 90 days if the US and Europe provided the necessary security. Elections have been suspended since martial law was declared when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

As the White House’s diplomatic push continues, attention in Europe is focused on how to support Ukraine in the event of a peace deal, with talks ongoing over security guarantees and funding.

The Ukrainian government faces a stark financial situation: it needs to find an extra €135.7bn (£119bn; $159bn) over the next two years.

On Friday, EU nations agreed to indefinitely freeze around €210bn (£185bn; $247) worth of Russian assets held in Europe.

It is hoped the agreement paves the way for the funds to be loaned back to Ukraine if a deal can be reached at an EU summit next week, providing Kyiv with financial help for its military and efforts to rebuild parts of the country left devastated after nearly four years of all-out war.

That move has been condemned as theft by the Kremlin, and Russia’s central bank has said it will sue Euroclear, a Belgian bank where the vast majority of Russian assets frozen after the invasion are held.

Officials are still negotiating the exact structure of a deal to repurpose the Russian assets on behalf of Ukraine, with the Belgian government particularly sceptical due to its legal exposure as the main holder.

Elsewhere, it was reported that the latest version of the peace plan being circulated envisions Ukraine rapidly joining the European Union.

The Financial Times said Brussels backed Ukraine’s swift accession to the bloc, an idea proposed by Ukraine in the latest draft it has given to Washington.

Ukraine formally applied to join the EU days after the 2022 invasion, but despite promises of an accelerated process is still several years away from becoming a member.

Under the plan, Ukraine would become a member as soon as January 2027, AFP reported, citing an unnamed senior official. It was unclear whether Washington had approved that element of the draft. (BBC)

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