Le Pays De France - Kremlin praises Trump, pounds Ukraine in massive attack

The nearly three-year conflict is escalating ahead of Trump coming to power in January, with both sides seeking to gain an upper hand on the battlefield amid mounting speculation of ceasefire talks.

Russia launched one of its largest missile attacks ever in the early hours of Friday, targeting Ukraine's energy grid as temperatures dropped below freezing, in what Moscow called a retaliatory strike for Kyiv firing US weapons on a southern Russian airfield earlier this week.

The Kremlin had warned it would respond to Kyiv's use of ATACMS missiles and then praised Trump, who said using the weapons to hit deep into Russia was a "foolish" idea.

"The statement fully aligns with our position, with our view on the reasons for escalation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"That impresses us. It is obvious that Trump understands exactly what is escalating the situation."

Moscow has repeatedly raged against Western arms supplied to Ukraine and said the use of Western weapons makes NATO countries direct participants in the nearly three-year conflict.

"In response to the use of American long-range weapons, a massive strike was carried out by the Russian armed forces... against critical facilities of Ukraine's fuel and energy infrastructure," Russia's defence ministry said in a post on Telegram.

- 'Deprive us of energy' -

The attack "severely damaged" some Ukrainian power plants, the DTEK power provider said, and knocked out electricity to thousands of people.

Russia fired 94 missiles in the barrage -- including cruise and ballistic missiles -- and almost 200 drones, according to Ukraine's air force. It claimed to have shot down 81 of the missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed Moscow had no interest in peace.

"This is Putin's 'peace plan' -- to destroy everything. This is how he wants 'negotiations' -- by terrorising millions of people," he said in a post on X.

He called for more Western air defence systems to protect Ukraine's skies and harsher sanctions on Moscow, to limit its ability to wage war.

The attack hit some thermal power plants belonging to Ukrainian energy provider DTEK.

"The massive attack severely damaged thermal power plant equipment," DTEK said without specifying how many facilities were hit.

There were reports of explosions in several regions, and damage to infrastructure in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Half of the western Ternipol region was left without power, officials said.

"As Ukrainians wake to the coldest day of the winter so far, the enemy tries to break our spirit with this cynical terrorist attack," DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko later said.

Energy workers were assessing the damage and had already started work on restoring power.

Ukraine, which had already been implementing hours-long outages, announced increased restrictions on Friday.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly denounced the attacks on its energy system as attempts to break the population's morale.

"Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media after the latest strike.

He said Ukraine needed 20 NASAMS, HAWK or IRIS-T air defence systems.

- 'After all goals achieved' -

In his interview with Time Magazine, which named him person of the year, Trump insisted he would not abandon Ukraine.

But his repeated remarks boasting he could end the war in hours have raised fears he might force Ukraine into a deal on Russia's terms.

The outgoing Joe Biden administration is racing to bolster aid to Kyiv before Trump's inauguration in January.

Western leaders are also stepping up their diplomatic efforts, with growing talk of the possible deployment of peacekeeping troops.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk discussed the possibility of stationing foreign troops in Ukraine in case of a ceasefire, in a meeting in Warsaw on Thursday, Tusk said.

But the Kremlin has pushed back on the idea that the two sides can be brought to the negotiating table easily.

"We don't want a ceasefire, we want peace, after our conditions are met and all our goals are achieved," Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters on Friday.

He said that right now Moscow's "prerequisites for negotiations" were not in place.

(M.LaRue--LPdF)