Russia has unleashed its heaviest combined attack on Ukraine's energy grid since the spring, hitting power plants and civilian areas across 11 regions and forcing Ukraine's first emergency power cuts since the end of the last heating season.
At least five people were killed, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying a child was among seven dead across Ukraine. Strikes damaged critical infrastructure in the Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad and Rivne regions, he said. Residential buildings, social infrastructure, civilian enterprises and railways were also targeted, officials said.
The Russian defence ministry said one of its targets was the Trypilska power station, the largest supplier of electricity to Kyiv, and the plant's operator confirmed damage.
The overnight assault triggered a more than 12-hour air-raid alert in the capital and prompted state grid operator Ukrenergo to impose emergency power cuts in Kyiv and three surrounding regions for the first time since spring. DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy firm, said power had been restored to 8,000 homes after "a difficult night" for the capital. Households in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions remained without power, the energy ministry said, and residents were advised not to use powerful electrical appliances between 10:00 and 16:00 local time.
"Since the summer, there has effectively not been a single day without enemy attacks on our energy infrastructure," Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said. "However, a mass and combined attack of this scale has occurred for the first time since the end of the last heating season."
Ukraine's air force said it had downed five missiles and 155 drones. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as a "deliberate" distraction from Russia's grinding battlefield offensive in eastern Ukraine.
The attack is the latest chapter in a campaign that has targeted Ukraine's energy grid every winter since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022, and many Ukrainians expect another winter of strikes intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness.