Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, on Wednesday removed his fellow Republican Mike Turner, a vocal supporter of assistance for Ukraine, as chairman of the powerful House intelligence committee. Johnson, who has aligned himself closely with Trump, said he would soon announce a new chair because the “intelligence community and everything related to [the committee] needs a fresh start”. Turner’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the new administration would seek “bold diplomacy” to end the war. “There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation, but also by the Ukrainians,” he said.

Russia launched missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, one day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the frontline. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said: “Another massive Russian attack. It is the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector.” The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 30 of the missiles and 47 drones, while the prime minister, Denys Shmygal, said the Russian attack had “failed”.

The mayor of the southern city of Kherson said there were power cuts as a result of the barrage. The governor of Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region said critical infrastructure facilities had been targeted. In the Lviv region, which borders EU and Nato member Poland, authorities said two such facilities had been hit in the Drogobych and Stryi districts. “There were no casualties, but there was damage,” said the governor, Maksym Kozytsky. Poland said while it scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace, there were no violations. National grid operator Ukrenergo urged Ukrainians to limit their electricity use throughout the day after lifting emergency blackouts in seven regions.

After the barrage, Zelenskyy called on the west to use around US$250bn of unallocated frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons. He was speaking at a press conference in Warsaw with the Polish president, Andrzej Duda. “Ukraine will take this money, allocate a large amount for domestic production and for the import of exactly those types of weapons that Ukraine does not have,” said Ukraine’s president. The EU last week paid out to Kyiv the first €3bn (US$3.1bn) of a loan backed by the interest earned on the Russian assets.