Russian air strike left thousands of Ukrainians in several cities without electricity and heating

(Patria) - Russia attacked Ukraine last night with drones and ballistic missiles, further damaging its energy system and leaving tens of thousands of people in the capital Kyiv and the cities of Dnipro and Odesa without heating, electricity, and water, officials said, Reuters reported.

Russia has intensified its winter campaign of strikes on Ukraine's power grid, pushing major cities into long periods of cold and darkness in low temperatures.

In Kyiv, about 3,500 residential buildings were without heating on Thursday after the latest attack cut off supply to nearly 2,600 high-rises, in addition to the 1,100 that were already affected by previous attacks, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Two people were injured in the attack, he said.

More than 100,000 families were without electricity, said the private energy company DTEK, which stated that one of its thermal power plants was targeted, but did not disclose its location.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 24 ballistic missiles, one cruise missile, and 219 drones overnight. Air defense shot down or neutralized 16 missiles and 197 drones, it said.

Odesa and Dnipro also hit

The Black Sea port of Odesa was hit twice in less than 24 hours.

Late on Thursday, regional governor Oleh Kiper said a second wave of drone attacks damaged homes, industrial sites, and energy infrastructure. Kiper said the attack disrupted electricity, heating, and water supply.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba had earlier said that the initial wave of attacks left nearly 300,000 people without water, as the attack disrupted the city's electricity supply. Nearly 200 buildings in the port city were left without heating.

Head of the military administration Serhiy Lysak said the attack also damaged a residential building and caused a fire that engulfed one of the city's markets, injuring one person.

In the industrial southeastern city of Dnipro, a combined missile and drone attack injured four people, including a baby boy and a four-year-old girl, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram.

Two people were killed and six injured in an attack on the railway hub of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia, prosecutors said.

Moscow has denied intentionally targeting civilians during the war, although its strikes have killed thousands of them since it launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine has also hit civilian targets in Russia or parts of Ukraine under Russian occupation during the war, albeit on a much smaller scale.

A blow to peace efforts

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the attack as undermining peace efforts led by US President Donald Trump to end the four-year war.

Trilateral negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, supported by the United States, have so far failed to resolve key differences between the two sides, while Moscow has continued its offensive on the battlefield and attacks on Ukrainian cities.
"Every such strike is a blow to peace efforts aimed at ending the war. Russia must be forced to take diplomacy seriously and de-escalate," Sybiha wrote on social network X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that the United States must exert greater pressure on Russia if they want the war to end by summer.