Hundreds of drones and missiles struck Kyiv and Kharkiv overnight, leaving thousands of homes without heat.
Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and its second-largest city, Kharkiv. A week-long ceasefire According to the Ukrainian authorities, winter conditions are over.
Russia launched an attack overnight with 450 drones and more than 60 missiles, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Andriy Sibiha said on Tuesday, accusing Moscow of waiting for temperatures to drop before renovating its energy infrastructure targets. In brutal subzero conditions.
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US President Donald Trump said last week that Russia had agreed to halt attacks on Ukrainian cities in freezing weather. Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure every winter since a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The barrage on Tuesday injured at least two people in the capital and two in Kharkiv, officials said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said 1,170 residential buildings in the capital were left without heating as temperatures dropped to -17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Russia targeted Kiev overnight with “another major strike in the bitter cold,” the head of the city’s military administration, Timur Tkachenko, said in a telegram, urging residents to stay in shelters.
The attacks affected five city districts, damaging three apartment blocks and a building housing a kindergarten, he said.
Footage on social media showed the top floor of an apartment building in the capital engulfed in flames.
According to unconfirmed media reports, two thermal power plants in the capital were hit.
‘Maximum Destruction’
Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in recent weeks have knocked out heating and electricity to hundreds of residential blocks in Kiev and other cities in Ukraine.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Tuesday’s attacks were aimed at “causing maximum destruction … and leaving the city without heat during severe frost”.
As a result of the attacks, officials had to cut heating to 820 buildings to drain coolant to prevent the wider network from freezing, he said.
Public broadcaster Suspil said the attacks knocked out power in the towns of Izum and Balaklia in Kharkiv region and hit two apartment buildings in the northern city of Sumy.
Ivan Fedorov, a military administrator in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia, said on Telegram that a 38-year-old woman had been killed in a drone strike in the suburb.
The so-called ceasefire failed
Trump announced Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to his personal request to halt attacks on “Kiev and various cities” amid bitterly cold weather.
Moscow said it had agreed to the request, but the ceasefire would only last until Sunday and did not link the measure to freezing temperatures.
Kiev, which welcomed the decision, said the ceasefire was to last for a week from January 30, but Moscow said its attacks were still continuing.
The attacks came as Russian and Ukrainian officials were preparing to meet A new round of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
“Not even the expected diplomatic efforts in Abu Dhabi this week, nor (Putin’s) assurances from the United States have stopped him from continuing to terrorize civilians in the harshest of winters,” Sibiha wrote on social media.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was preferring more attacks to peace talks.
“It is more important for Russia to take advantage of cold winter days to scare people than to turn to diplomacy,” Zelensky wrote on social media.
Zelensky suggested on Monday that the recent “de-escalation” with Russia was helping to build confidence in the negotiations.