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A massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure using missiles and drones has caused widespread power outages across Ukraine and damaged vital facilities that provide heating for the country.
Russia launched more than 400 drones and close to 50 missiles at Ukraine on Saturday night, said the Ukrainian air force.
The Ukrainian air force claimed to have down the majority of drones and about a fifth of the missiles.
The capital, Kyiv, and the cities of Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kremenchuk all faced blackouts, as well as loss of heating and water.
A statement by Centrenergo, Ukraine’s state-owned power company, claimed “power generation is down to zero” after all of its thermal power plants were hit.
“An unprecedented number of missiles and countless drones—several per minute—targeted the same power plants that we had restored after the devastating attack of 2024,” the statement read, making reference to a similar large-scale attack that took place last year.
Trains were also delayed due to attacks on depots.
“Russian strikes once again targeted people’s everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said.
Experts warn that Ukraine could face serious heating problems as winter approaches.
As The Moscow Times reports, “Ukraine’s top energy expert, Oleksandr Kharchenko, told a media briefing on Wednesday that if Kyiv’s two power and heating plants went offline for more than three days when temperatures fall below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the capital would face a “technological disaster.’”
The Kyiv School of Economics estimated recently that Russian attacks have shut down half of Ukraine’s natural-gas production.
Saturday night’s attack may have come in response to a Ukrainian attack on energy infrastructure in Russia’s southern Volgograd region. On Friday, Ukrainian drones caused power cuts in the region, according to its governor Andrei Botcharov.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil depots and refineries ain recent months, attempting to disrupt Moscow’s vital energy exports and trigger fuel shortages across the nation.
In recent weeks, President Trump has expressed growing frustration at his inability to break the deadlock and secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
At the end of October, as he headed to Malaysia for a week-long Asia tour, the President said he would not meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, until a peace deal is reached.
“I’m going to have to know that we’re going to make a deal,” Trump said while speaking to journalists on Air Force One as he made his way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a week-long Asia tour.
“I’m not going to be wasting my time. I’ve always had a very great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing.”
President Trump cancelled a peace summit in Budapest with Putin, in a clear sign of his frustration at the lack of progress towards peace.
“I thought this would have gone long before peace in the Middle East,” Trump said.
“We have Azerbaijan and Armenia—that was very tough. In fact, Putin told me on the phone, he said, ‘Boy, that was amazing,’ because everybody tried to get that done and they couldn’t. I got it done. You had others. If you look at India and Pakistan. I could say almost any one of the deals that I’ve already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine, but it didn’t work out that way. There’s a lot of hatred between the two, between [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Putin.”
After cancelling the summit, President Trump announced fresh sanctions on Russia, targeting its two largest oil-exporting companies, as a result of “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.”
During his recent meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping, President Trump also discussed China’s purchases of Russian oil. Trump has attempted to put pressure on Moscow by persuading significant consumers of Russian energy like China and India to dial back their purchases.
