Thousands freeze as Russia resumes energy strikes on Ukraine in depth of winter

Thousands of households in Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine have been left without heat and power in temperatures as low as -25C as Russia resumed its strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure after a brief US-backed moratorium, the authorities said on Tuesday.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia carried out a “targeted attack specifically on energy facilities”, launching missiles and drones at Kyiv and the surrounding region as well as the Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Vinnytsia regions, injuring at least nine people.

Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia had used 71 missiles and 450 drones in its latest barrage, with strikes recorded at 31 locations across the country and falling debris causing damage in a further 17, making the assault the largest of the year so far.

“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelensky said, urging Kyiv’s partners to continue to provide air defence missiles to protect against Russian “terror and escalation”.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal called the strikes an “attempt at winter genocide” and said Russia had deliberately targeted power stations that were “operating solely to provide heat to communities” in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said Russia had caused “significant damage” to its thermal power plants in the overnight attack, which it said was Moscow’s ninth on its facilities since October.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said some 1,170 apartment blocks on the left bank of the River Dnipro had no heating following the overnight strikes, which Ukraine’s National Police said injured two people. Several residential buildings were also directly hit by drones, Klitschko added, while DTEK said emergency power outages had been introduced on the left bank.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s second city for over three hours overnight in an attack designed to “to cause maximum damage and leave the city without heat in severe frost”.

Water would be drained from the heating system in 820 buildings supplied by a power plant affected by the strikes to prevent their pipes from freezing, Terekhov said, adding that 101 emergency shelters were operating around the city to provide residents with heat, water and electricity.

Russia’s attacks came just a day ahead of an expected second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and marked the end of a brief pause in strikes on energy infrastructure.

While Zelensky said on Friday that US President Donald Trump had spoken about “refraining from strikes on energy infrastructure for a week”, the Kremlin suggested that it would only halt its attacks until Sunday in order to create “favourable conditions” for the Abu Dhabi talks.