Overnight Russian missile and drone attacks knocked out power to 600,000 people and killed at least six. The bombardment followed a declared truce on energy targets.
Overnight Russian missile and drone barrages killed at least six people across Ukraine and left at least 600,000 people without electricity, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. The widespread strikes damaged critical energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other areas, coming days after a purported truce on energy infrastructure was declared.
Damage to energy grids and residential areas
Ukraine’s air force stated that Russia fired 39 ballistic and cruise missiles alongside 128 drones overnight, with air defense units shooting down four missiles and 115 drones, BBC News reported. In the capital, emergency power cuts hit several urban districts, according to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko told residents on Telegram that ballistic missiles had damaged energy facilities across the capital and surrounding areas. Klitschko urged people to stay inside shelters, writing, “Energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region have come under a massive ballistic missile strike. There are power disruptions in the capital,” Al Jazeera reported.
The strikes also hit residential structures. Ukraine’s state emergency service, DSNS, said three people were killed and 21 injured in Kyiv, including two deaths from a strike on a multistorey building in the Desnianskyi district and another fatality in the Golosiivsky district. Beyond the capital, Ukrainian military officials reported that strikes killed two people and wounded six in the Dnipropetrovsk region, while another person died in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. Additional missile strikes struck the Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions, as well as Sumy and Chernigiv.
Fallout over the energy ceasefire
The attacks took place shortly after United States President Donald Trump posted on social media on Sunday claiming an agreement was in place, writing: “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” That came as Trump sought an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia in the more-than four-year-old war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia deliberately violated that agreement. On X, Zelenskyy wrote that the targeted ballistic strike hit the exact energy infrastructure covered by the American president’s announcement, calling it a deliberate act of disrespect toward the United States. Zelenskyy also stated on Facebook that Ukraine received no early warning from Western partners about the ballistic missile launches, detecting the incoming weapons only as they closed in on Kyiv.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly said Ukraine remains willing to stop striking Russian oil refineries and energy sites if Moscow does the same. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine does not deserve the respite of a ceasefire, arguing that any pause would allow Europe to supply Ukraine with new weapons to keep fighting. The Russian Defence Ministry said Wednesday through the Interfax news agency that its forces conducted a massive strike against communications and energy facilities in Ukraine that were used by the Ukrainian military.
Drone attacks inside Russia
Across the border, Russian authorities reported extensive Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. Russia’s military said its forces shot down 902 Ukrainian drones over several regions, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defenses intercepted nearly 500 drones heading toward the Russian capital overnight, though the Russian military later stated that 180 were downed near Moscow. Officials said about 160 more were destroyed over the Rostov region.
In the Saratov region, Governor Roman Busargin reported that a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in the city of Balakovo. Busargin said all local infrastructure continued to operate normally. The city contains a nuclear power station, a hydropower plant with a dam spanning the Volga River, and a data center belonging to Sberbank, Russia’s top lender.
