Russia strikes Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in its largest attack since spring

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been targeted in Russia’s largest attack since spring, with strikes focused mainly on Kyiv and its surrounding areas. Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said this, according to the BBC.

At least five people were killed in overnight attacks across different parts of Ukraine. The victims included a child in the Kyiv region.

The strikes also disrupted electricity supplies. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said it had restored power to around 8,000 homes after a night it described as difficult for the capital.

According to Russia’s Ministry of Defense, one of the targets was the Trypilska power plant, one of Kyiv’s main energy suppliers. Centrenergo, its operator, confirmed that the facility had been damaged and said it was assessing the extent of the damage.

Koretskyi described the operation as a large-scale, combined attack—the first of this magnitude since the end of the last heating season. He said that since summer, Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure had taken place almost every day.

A total of 11 regions were hit overnight. Alongside energy facilities, residential buildings, social infrastructure, civilian businesses and railway lines were also affected.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said critical infrastructure had been hit in the Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad and Rivne regions.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said that on Wednesday, some households in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions remained without electricity. Because supply was lower than usual, the state operator Ukrenergo urged residents not to use energy-intensive appliances between 10:00 and 16:00.

After a series of overnight explosions, Kyiv was blanketed by a thick cloud of smoke. Authorities urged residents in several districts to keep their windows closed until the smoke cleared.

In the Kyiv region, a child’s body was pulled from the rubble of a home. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three people had been killed in the capital. One of them was an employee of a Ukrainian public utility company who died in a warehouse building.

Another person was killed in the Mykolaiv region, while two people died in the northeastern Sumy region. The governor of Sumy said a school had been hit in a separate attack.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. According to figures cited in reports, Moscow currently controls around 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory.