Russian shelling killed five people in Ukraine on December 3, including a 6-year-old girl
The National Police of Ukraine reported that Russian shelling on December 3, 2025, killed five people and wounded more than two dozen others in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions.
Damage from a Russian strike on Sloviansk late in the evening of December 3, 2025Those killed by Russian strikes that day include:
- two residents of Kostiantynivka, which Russians hit with a guided aerial bomb;
- two miners, Vitaliy Korotych and Valeriy Kalinevych, from Ternivka;
- and a 6-year-old girl from Kherson, who sustained severe injuries at around 9 p.m. when Russians shelled the city with artillery.
The daily report for the Kherson Oblast also included a 62-year-old man who died in the hospital after being wounded on November 30.
In addition to the fatalities, a 49-year-old man — the father of the killed girl — was wounded. He was hospitalized with a blast injury and shrapnel wounds to the pelvis, but his life is not in danger.
Kherson law enforcement also learned of three women wounded in a Russian strike on December 2 in Novoberyslav.
The Naftogaz press service reported that the massive Russian shelling on December 3 practically destroyed the Kherson Thermal Power Plant. Four hundred seventy houses — more than 40,500 subscribers — were left without heat.
“The Kherson CHP plant is an entirely civilian facility. Its only purpose is to provide heating to city residents. Despite this, the Russians systematically shell the enterprise. This is terrorism,” stressed Serhiy Koretskyi, CEO of Naftogaz. The company stated that Russians injured civilians in that shelling.
In the Donetsk region, Russian forces launched more than 2,000 strikes on December 3, injuring 14 people. The wounded include a Kostiantynivka resident hit by a drone and 13 people from Sloviansk. In Sloviansk, Russians launched at least nine aerial bomb strikes, hitting an apartment building, among other targets.
One of the injured in Sloviansk.
A police officer and medics lead a woman wounded in a Russian strike on Sloviansk to an ambulanceIn the Dnipropetrovsk region, in addition to the two fatalities, 10 people were reported injured.
In the evening, Russians struck Kryvyi Rih, leaving six people injured, and also wounded four people in Nikopol, including a 10-year-old girl. Russia targeted the region with artillery and drones.
In the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, residents endured nearly 1,000 Russian strikes on December 3, mostly involving various types of drones. A 64-year-old man was wounded in a shelling attack in Huliaipole.
A civilian car shelled by Russian forces in the Kharkiv region, where no casualties were reported on December 3, 2025To provide background, Russian shelling killed four civilians on December 2.
So far this year, Russians have launched more than 44,000 guided aerial bombs alone at Ukraine. The use of such weapons is one of the reasons for the vast majority of civilian deaths, which have increased by 27% this year.
Last year in Ukraine also ended with a total 30% increase in fatalities, while child deaths rose by half. Prior to this, such a high number of minors had died only in the first months of the full-scale invasion.
During the latest war talks, it became clear that the Russian Federation refused to withdraw its troops from the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as the oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Sumy.
The meeting between Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, Steve Witkoff, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on December 2 lasted almost five hours and yielded no results.
To provide context, Ukraine urges the international community to unite to restore global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognized 1991 borders while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.
U.S. President Donald Trump said that following meetings in Moscow, his negotiators were left with the impression that Putin allegedly wants to end the war.
Meanwhile, members of the U.S. Senate report a complete absence or critical lack of communication from Donald Trump’s administration regarding issues related to war negotiations regarding Ukraine.
As reported Ukrinform news agency, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of two other Senate committees, confirmed the lack of dialogue with the executive branch. When asked by journalists whether there is communication with the White House regarding the plan for Ukraine, he answered with a categorical “no.”
The politician also expressed his principled position on the conditions for ending the war. Durbin emphasized that Ukraine should not cede its territories in the Donbas for the sake of peace, and called the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia a war crime.
Separately, the senator commented on the appointment of Steve Witkoff as President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine.
“He made billions of dollars as a real estate negotiator. I don’t know how he ends up sitting across the table from Putin,” Durbin stated.
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen also reported an information vacuum from the administration. According to her, she learns about the course of events and the peace negotiation process regarding Ukraine exclusively from media reports.
“I think the plans that have been presented publicly as of right now are inadequate,” she emphasized.
At the same time, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he communicates with Trump administration representatives “almost every day.” However, Graham did not specify whether these conversations directly concern the current negotiation process regarding the cessation of Russian aggression against Ukraine, or if they involve other domestic and foreign policy issues.
Addressing colleagues from Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) member states during their meeting in Vienna, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Kaja Kallas called for steps to strip Russia of its desire to change borders by force. She reminded the assembly that Russia has invaded 19 countries over the past 100 years.
