Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Missile strikes in occupied Melitopol, Ukraine reported 200 Russian casualties

Ukraine launched missile strikes on the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region. Mayor Ivan Fyodorov, quoted by the UNIAN agency, claims that around 200 Russian soldiers died.

According to the local pro-Moscow administration, two people died and 10 were injured.

According to reports, the dead soldiers were burned in a fire that broke out during the Ukrainian strikes. Local residents say ambulances from across the city have arrived at the scene.

Earlier, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said that more than 10 loud explosions were heard in the city temporarily occupied by Russian forces. Subsequently, he specified that according to preliminary information, the building of a church, occupied by the Russians a few months ago and turned into their meeting place, was on fire.

On the Russian side, it is reported that the center of Donetsk is again under fire from "Grad" rocket launchers. The targets of the attack were the Voroshilovsky and Kalininsky districts, against which 20 rockets were fired. In the attack, according to the "Novosti" agency, one civilian was injured, the building of the new planetarium was destroyed, as well as two shopping centers.

Against the background of the ongoing hostilities, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced that there is an acute shortage of electricity in the country's energy system. For this reason, there are still scheduled power outages, he added, describing the situation in Odesa region as very difficult.

Zelensky added that Ukrainian forces shot down 10 of the drones involved in the attack over the previous 24 hours.

Damage caused by Russian strikes on energy infrastructure in the Odesa region could take up to three months to repair. This was written on Facebook by the local administration, quoted by Reuters.

Zelensky: 1.5 million people in Odesa region are without electricity after Russian strikes

More than 1.5 million people in Odesa region are without electricity, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late night video address. All non-critical infrastructure in the city of Odesa has been left without power, local authorities said.

Russia has used drones to strike energy facilities and much of the surrounding area has also been affected, Reuters reported.

"Due to the scale of the damage, all consumers in Odesa, except for critical infrastructure, are disconnected from the power supply," Odesa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov wrote on Facebook.

Odesa is the largest port city in Ukraine. It had a population of over 1 million before the Russian invasion on February 24.

A statement from the city administration said the Russian strikes hit key transmission lines and equipment in Odesa Oblast in the early hours of Saturday.

Odesa regional governor Maxim Marchenko said Russia used kamikaze drones. Two of them were shot down over the Black Sea.

Scholz: I will continue to talk to Putin

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will continue talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin within the framework of efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Anadolu Agency reported.

"We have completely different opinions. However, I will continue to talk to him because I want to see the moment when it is possible to get out of the situation. And that is impossible if we do not talk to each other," said Scholz.

He recalled that his telephone conversations with Putin were always professional and sometimes even in German.

"At the moment I cannot agree: He just wants to conquer part of the Ukrainian territory by force. This is happening despite heavy Russian losses, which could reach up to 100,000 people," Scholz said.

He last spoke with Putin on December 2 and condemned Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. He also renewed his call for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Scholz has had several phone conversations with Putin since the start of the war in Russia on February 24. The contacts have drawn some criticism, but the German chancellor has argued that the talks are necessary to end the war.

EU bypasses the Hungarian veto on financial aid to Ukraine

The member states of the European Union have reached an agreement to unblock the package of financial aid for Ukraine in the amount of 18 billion euros for the next year, Euro News reported.

The countries bypassed Hungary's veto. Budapest kept the aid blocked in order to blackmail it so that its European partners would not freeze the country's reconstruction funds because of violations of the principles of the rule of law.

"Ukraine can count on the EU. We will continue to support Ukraine financially as long as necessary," the EU Council said in a statement.

The proposal was accepted by the Council. It will be presented to the European Parliament for possible adoption next week, the statement said.

Hungary is about to have 7.5 billion euros of its allocated share of the EU budget frozen after it failed to complete a series of reforms designed to tackle corruption, procurement irregularities and conflicts of interest among civil servants.

"I can't pay my rent": Serbs resent rising prices due to fleeing Russia

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, more than 100 thousand Russians have moved to Serbia. The Serbian real estate market has seen a price boom as Russians are willing to pay more, and many are offering for a year ahead. In Novi Sad, the rent for an average apartment has jumped from 300 to 800 euros. It often happens that the locals get a notice to leave the house, because the owners prefer to give it to Russians at an inflated price. All this leads to a general increase in the price of the real estate market. Snezhana Milosevic lives in a small apartment with her mother and three children. When the rent goes up from 300 to 450 euros, she has no choice and has to look for new accommodation. With overhead costs, she will have to pay about 600 euros, which is as much as her salary. But finding an apartment at a decent price in Novi Sad is already almost impossible.

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