Russia launched a large‑scale air offensive against Ukraine’s power infrastructure on Wednesday, targeting facilities around Kyiv and other regions in the most extensive combined assault on energy sites in months.
The attacks, which Ukrainian officials say claimed seven lives, came after days of escalating drone strikes focused on the capital, heralding what many Ukrainians fear will be a winter of assaults designed to leave cities in cold and darkness amid limited air‑defence capabilities.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state grid operator, declared emergency power outages in Kyiv and three adjacent regions following the assault, marking the first such measure in the capital since spring.
Last winter’s Russian strikes, compounded by record‑low temperatures, devastated power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to cope with severe hardships.
Capital shrouded in smoke
Amid the blackouts, Kyiv’s trams and trolleybuses came to a stop as commuters made their way home, and the city’s water utility reported reduced pressure in the distribution system.
“Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on X after the overnight attacks. “Since summer, there’s barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn’t happened since the end of last heating season.”
Kyiv residents awoke on Wednesday to a city cloaked in smog from the attacks, with authorities reporting damage to a key power plant and other energy installations surrounding the capital.
Ukraine’s air force reported that its air defences intercepted 254 of the 285 Russian drones launched, up to early evening.
Of those, 174 were high‑flying, jet‑propelled drones that are more difficult to intercept. In addition, Russian forces conducted a ballistic missile strike.
A child was among the seven fatalities across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced, and critical infrastructure had been targeted in five regions, with additional damage reported in five others.
Zelensky visited a military command post near Lyman on the eastern front line, touting gains made against Russian forces during an ongoing counteroffensive.
He reported that Ukrainian troops have reclaimed 176 square kilometres (approximately 29.3 square miles) of territory since the operation began.
Russia stated that its forces targeted power plants in the Kyiv region, an industrial complex in the Odesa region, and port facilities in Ismail in the southwest.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported finding debris at a Western embassy, though he provided no further specifics. The overnight assault prompted an air‑raid alert lasting over 12 hours.
Drone strikes persisted over Kyiv through the early evening.
Nearly constant sirens and explosions have become a daily backdrop in Kyiv, where drone attacks have claimed roughly a dozen lives in the past week alone.
PM orders power backup checks
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Wednesday’s Russian attack as a “deliberate” diversion from Moscow’s grinding offensive in eastern Ukraine, which has slowed since last year.
“Moscow is increasing the pressure on Ukrainian civilians as winter approaches, trying once again to turn cold, darkness, and disruption of normal life into weapons,” he said on X.
Forecasters expect freezing night‑time temperatures in Kyiv in the coming days.
Russia, which began its full‑scale invasion in February 2022, denies targeting civilians, though it has pounded towns and cities across Ukraine.
Prime Minister Koretskyi said he instructed local authorities to verify the readiness of backup power systems at critical facilities and to speed up installations.
Authorities have been building protective infrastructure and diversifying energy generation in recent weeks and months in anticipation of Russia’s expected winter campaign.
However, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human‑rights ombudsman, warned of a severe shortage of urban shelters, describing the civil‑defence system as having “completely failed.”
Drones cross into Moldova
Three drones entered Moldovan airspace on Wednesday, according to the country’s defence ministry, as they crossed Ukraine’s western border.
In response, NATO allies Romania and Poland scrambled fighter jets, and temporary flight suspensions were imposed at the Polish airports of Lublin and Rzeszów.
Ukraine has intensified its own strikes on Russia, targeting oil refineries and online retail platforms to hamper Moscow’s war‑fighting capacity.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
