Russia Strikes Ukraine Energy Grid, Killing Two and Disrupting Power

Russian ballistic missiles and drones struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure, killing at least two people and disrupting electricity, water, and heating supplies across five regions including Kyiv.

The overnight assaults damaged critical facilities supplying the capital and central Ukraine. Consumers are without electricity in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions.

“The capital is facing serious difficulties with its electricity, water, and heat supplies,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, noting that electricity substations in five regions sustained serious damage. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that multiple waves of ballistic missiles struck the capital and damaged sections of the Northern Bridge.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia launched 36 ballistic missiles alongside 172 drones. Air defences intercepted four missiles and 149 drones.

At one of Ukraine’s power stations, a ballistic missile strike reduced the facility to twisted metal and broken pipes. It buried its turbines in rubble and took the site completely offline.

Volodymyr Kovalenko has worked at the site for 25 years. “It was a very powerful attack. We'd never experienced anything like it. We'd had strikes before – part of the roof had collapsed, it was pretty grim. But this time it was particularly severe,” Volodymyr Kovalenko, who was on duty in the control room when the missiles struck at 3 a.m., said while describing the devastation.

It’s very difficult. You’ve mentally prepared yourself to do a particular job, and then… the air raid siren goes off, and you have to get out as quickly as possible.

Vadym Bobyr, leading the recovery effort

Rebuilding the destroyed station will take at least until next summer. Recovery teams face air raids every 15 to 30 minutes, limiting productive work to one or two hours daily.

Ukraine's power supply close to critical as Russian strikes bring darkness and cold — Photo: the-star.co.ke

Maxim Timchenko is CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company. He said that the scale and power of the weapon types have doubled compared to last year, putting unprecedented pressure on the degraded grid.

Across the capital, families face rolling schedules of planned power cuts that began in October. “The last few days it was only four or five hours we had power, but it's not at the same times. For two hours we have electricity, then for eight hours we don't,” Daryna Kulchytska said, as households endure extended blackouts lasting up to 20 hours in some areas.

Daryna Kulchytska lives in a seventh-floor flat in Kyiv. She tries to cook, manage schoolwork for her two children, and work remotely during unpredictable power windows.

A mother and her two children sit on a bed in a dark flat in Kyiv. The mother has her arms around both children — Photo: bbc.co.uk

Authorities warn that life risks becoming unsustainable if power cannot be maintained for at least four hours daily. Kulchytska said that citizens accept living without power as long as they resist the invasion, even as air alarms and dropping temperatures reshape daily life.

Earlier coverage: Russia Suffers Record Monthly Casualties and Net Territorial Losses