52 civilians, including children were abducted in Sumy Oblast and forcibly taken to Russia

Russian troops abducted at least 52 civilians, including several children, from the border village of Hrabovske in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dece,ber 22.

According to preliminary information, Russian forces illegally detained around 50 residents of the village on December 18, holding them without communication or proper conditions. Two days later, on Dec. 20, the civilians were forcibly taken to Russia. Hrabovske lies just about 200 meters from the Russian border.

Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said he immediately contacted his Russian counterpart to demand information about the abducted civilians’ whereabouts, conditions of detention, and urgent needs, and called for their immediate return. He also appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene.

Lubinets urged civilians remaining in frontline border areas to evacuate as soon as possible, warning that staying in active combat zones puts lives and freedom at serious risk. He stressed the need for legislation allowing compulsory evacuation, especially of children, from areas under immediate threat.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on “all states and international organizations” to support Ukraine in demanding the return of its citizens. He described the abduction of civilians as a crime already being prosecuted in Ukraine and said it requires a strong international response.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the incident earlier, noting that most of those taken are elderly men and women, including at least one woman aged 89. Many of them had previously refused evacuation deeper into Ukrainian-controlled territory. Zelensky later confirmed that several children are among those abducted.

Law enforcement agencies have opened an investigation into the forced deportation of civilians.

According to Ukrainian military officials, Russian units entered the village on December 20 and attempted to advance up to one kilometer into Ukrainian territory. Fighting is ongoing in Hrabovske, and Ukrainian forces are working to push the attackers back across the border. Authorities stressed that, despite some reports, Russian troops are not present in the neighboring village of Riasne.

Daily Russian attacks have made border communities in Sumy Oblast increasingly unsafe, prompting mandatory evacuations in hundreds of settlements. Due to its location along Ukraine’s northeastern frontier, the region has been under constant pressure since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, though Ukrainian forces continue to control most of the oblast.

Russian attack on Ukraine caused blackouts in three oblasts

Consumers in several western and central regions of Ukraine have been left almost entirely without electricity following a large-scale Russian attack on the country’s power grid on the morning of 23 December, the Ministry of Energy reported.

“Over the course of the night and into the morning, Russia carried out another large-scale strike on Ukraine’s power system — the ninth such attack since the beginning of the year,” the ministry said. “As a result, consumers in Rivne, Ternopil, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts were almost completely without electricity this morning.”

Power outages have also been recorded in Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr oblasts, as well as in frontline regions including Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv oblasts.

Emergency repair work will begin as soon as the security situation allows. The ministry noted that energy workers are operating under extremely difficult conditions due to the ongoing threat of repeated strikes.

In Odesa Oblast, repair crews are still dealing with the consequences of several consecutive large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure. A significant number of residents there remain without power, and energy companies are working to restore damaged equipment as quickly as possible.

Because of the масштаб of the damage, emergency power outage schedules have been introduced across the entire country. The Ministry of Energy emphasized that previously published hourly outage timetables issued by regional power distribution companies are temporarily suspended and are no longer in effect.

Almost all missiles were intercepted by F-16 pilots during the overnight attack

The vast majority of Russian cruise missiles launched during Russia’s overnight attack on 22–23 December were intercepted by Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets, the Air Force of Ukraine has reported, while warning of a critical shortage of interceptor missiles.

Colonel Yurii Ihnat, head of communications for the Air Force, said the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defence during the attack was exceptionally high.

“You can see the extremely high effectiveness of air defence operations,” Ihnat said. “Although Patriot systems did not intercept Kinzhal missiles, they also failed to reach their targets.”

According to Ihnat, 34 out of 35 Russian cruise missiles were shot down, with the majority intercepted by F-16 aircraft.

“These missiles were mainly destroyed by F-16s intercepting them. For this, we thank our brave pilots,” he added.

At the same time, Ihnat stressed that Ukraine is facing a serious shortage of both air-to-air missiles for fighter aircraft and interceptor missiles for ground-based air defence systems.

“This is being emphasised everywhere — pilots talk about it in interviews, and senior military leadership does as well,” he said. “The president of Ukraine has recently stressed to our partners the urgent need to strengthen air defence, both with systems and, crucially, with missiles.”

He warned that some air defence systems are currently unable to operate effectively due to a lack of ammunition.

“Some systems are standing idle because they have no missiles at all,” Ihnat noted, underscoring the growing challenge Ukraine faces in sustaining its air defence against continued Russian attacks.

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