intensify ahead. especially with the war raging on. in one corner of the party you have a large block of republicans looking to continue to help ukraine. you saw that at the conference and a large amount of ukraine delegates following president biden s visit there. but in the party you have a small influential block of republicans that are calling to end all aid, financially and militarily to ukraine. and they were criticizing president biden s trip there publically making it for quite the split screen moment for the republican party. this is a dynamic that kevin mccarthy is carefully navigating. he knows he needs the firebrand republicans, needs their support to do anything here on capitol hill. i asked him about a resolution from matt gates that would end all the financial aid to
the most significant that russia has launched to date. saying in a statement, this, quote, russian terrorists have been saving one of the most massive missile attacks sin the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year. they dream that ukrainians will celebrate the new year in darkness and cold. but they cannot defeat the ukrainian people. ukraine s foreign minister called out the attacks for what they are, quote, senseless barbarism. millions without power in the frigid cold in ukraine with this war raging on. we ll be right back. r raging on. we ll be right back. p plan? get plan b one-step. plan b helps prevent pregnancy before it starts by temporarily delaying ovulation and you can resume your regular birth control right away. i ve got this.
reporter: tonight, russian shells striking ukrainians in central kherson, killing at least 10 and injuring more than 60. the regional governor urging residents to evacuate to safer areas. the city, a bitter symbol for the now battered russian forces. it was the only regional capital they captured, even claiming it as their own. that is, until ukraine liberated kherson last month. to the north, in kramatorsk, russia on friday blasting this apartment building, many of its residents elderly. [ speaking non-english ] it s scary, it s horror, this distraught woman says. and today, christmas eve, marking ten months to the day since russia invaded. in churches around the city, christmas prayers for an end to war. with war raging on in so many parts of this country, this is an important time and place for people to feel at peace. [ speaking non-english ] in a christmas eve address,
with winter weather there and the war raging on, the energy crisis in ukraine is becoming even more alarming. the country s infrastructure minister outlined the reality there. that around half of the critical pieces of their electrical grid you see here are damaged or destroyed. they re trying to shield them from russian strikes using just sandbags. the occupied zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains off the grid. ukraine is in the middle of what the u.n. calls a human rights emergency, so dire it brought pope francis to tears at a public prayer just yesterday. [ speaking non-english ]
translator: donbas is holding firm. the losses the occupiers suffered including in this direction are very heavy. the russian army as a whole has already about 32,000 dead souls as of today. what for? what benefits have you gained from this, russia? cnn cannot independently verify the number of forces killed in the conflict. but despite the losses, russian forces are now in control of most of severodonetsk, the epicenter of the battle for ukraine s eastern donbas region. cnn s salma abdelaziz is with us from kyiv. talk to us about twhat s happening there. reporter: along the front lines, the war is turning in russia s favor. ukrainian forces say they re running out of weapons, having to pull back in some places, but here in kyiv, where i am, there is a very different story. people are coming back, people who fled their homes, and they say even with the war raging on,