Russia steps up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter

Rescue workers put out a fire at a residential house destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Vyshhorod, Kyiv region, Ukraine, on Wednesday. Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press

Russia pressed its missile and drone barrage of Kyiv and areas around the Ukrainian capital, killing four people, including a child, while mainly targeting the power grid, officials said Wednesday.

Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August is putting pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat, power and running water.

The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions about whether it marked the start of Russia’s anticipated cold weather campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponize winter.”

“There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. “But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted the increase in Russian strikes has brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine.”

“Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.

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Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with U.S. efforts to halt the fighting, 4 1/2 years after Russia invaded its neighbour. Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, but its demand for Ukraine to surrender land is unacceptable for Kyiv.

A boy was killed and three other people were rescued from the rubble of a private home in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.

The attacks also killed three people in the capital and wounded at least four others, according to authorities.

Russia fired 2,850 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine in August but by Tuesday it had already launched 3,177 this month, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said.

Russia has exploited gaps in Ukrainian air defences by firing ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to stop. Air raid alerts are disrupting daily life, sending people running for shelter and denting economic output.

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The attacks come in waves, Ihnat told Ukrainian television late Tuesday, mostly aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine needs more missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air defence systems to counter ballistic missiles and for other ground-based air defences, he said.

The main Russian targets were energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media, describing it as “a difficult attack” as Moscow stretches Ukraine’s air defences.

Zelensky thanked foreign countries supporting Ukraine for recent deliveries of air defence help. “And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need,” he said. “We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s bet on ballistic missile and drone terror does not pay off.”

The Russian Defence Ministry said its overnight attack hit a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant, an electrical substation, an energy storage facility and a data centre.

Ukrainian officials didn’t specifically confirm those strikes, as Kyiv wants to deny Moscow intelligence about the effectiveness of its attacks. Authorities reported hits on civilian areas of at least four Kyiv districts.