Russia unleashed one of its largest overnight assaults on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, killing at least six people and leaving vast areas without electricity, water, and heating, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Sunday.
According to the global media, the attacks, which targeted both residential and industrial areas, struck 25 sites across Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian authorities said Moscow fired more than 450 drones and 45 missiles overnight. Several major power installations were damaged, prompting emergency blackouts in multiple regions.
Ukrainian energy company DTEK said power supplies were cut to parts of the capital, Kyiv, and to the northern city of Kharkiv.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that in Dnipro, a Russian drone struck a residential building, killing three people, while one person died in Kharkiv.
“Russian strikes once again targeted people’s everyday life,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said. “They deprived communities of power, water, and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks.”
In Kharkiv, the mayor reported a noticeable shortage of electricity, and local authorities said water supplies had been interrupted.
The eastern city of Kremenchuk in the Poltava region also lost electricity, water, and partial heating following the strikes.
Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said there were significant train delays across the country due to damage at locomotive depots.
“We are working to eliminate the consequences throughout the country. The focus is on the rapid restoration of heat, light and water,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko stated.
Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm Naftogaz said the assault marked the ninth massive attack on gas infrastructure since early October.
Experts warned the sustained strikes could trigger heating outages as winter approaches. Kyiv’s School of Economics estimated that the attacks have already shut down half of Ukraine’s natural gas production.
Energy expert Oleksandr Kharchenko warned that if Kyiv’s two main power and heating plants were to go offline for more than three days during temperatures below minus ten degrees Celsius, the capital could face what he described as a “technological disaster”.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying its forces had targeted “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and gas and energy facilities that support their operation.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has intensified its own drone strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries in recent months in an effort to cut off Moscow’s vital energy exports.
On Friday evening, drone attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia’s southern Volgograd region caused temporary power outages there, according to regional governor Andrei Botcharov.