Russian forces hammered energy infrastructure around Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight, straining Kyiv’s power supply and heating systems as temperatures headed towards zero, officials said yesterday.
Three days before Russia and Ukraine are due to take part in US-brokered talks, explosions rocked Kyiv as Moscow unleashed waves of ballistic missiles, several of which hit and damaged the Northern Bridge across the Dnipro River, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Strikes on energy facilities outside Kyiv – including systems sending power from two nuclear plants to the city and Ukraine’s central regions – caused serious damage, the energy ministry said.
“The capital is facing serious difficulties with its electricity, water, and heat supplies,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X, adding that substations in five other regions were also hit.
He said only four of the 36 ballistic-type missiles launched by Russia had been intercepted, and that some were North Korean-made and hit an important energy facility.
At least two people were killed and around a dozen others wounded across Ukraine in the overnight attacks, which also damaged homes, businesses and non-residential buildings, authorities said.
Moscow’s defence ministry said it struck what it described as targets in Ukraine’s military-industrial sector, as well as energy and transport infrastructure in and around Kyiv.
Ukraine also carried out drone and missile attacks on several Russian regions, causing minor damage but no casualties, Russian authorities said.
Russia has stepped up air attacks on Ukraine as its ground offensive has largely stalled, pounding energy infrastructure in Ukrainian cities with difficult-to-intercept missiles and drones.
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