Russian missile and drone strikes hammered Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities early Tuesday, injuring at least four people and igniting new fires at energy facilities as a deep freeze gripped the country, officials said. The barrage came on the eve of planned trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates involving envoys from Kyiv, Moscow and Washington on efforts to halt the war.
Air raid alerts sounded after midnight in the capital, where night temperatures fell below minus 20 C. Witnesses reported loud explosions as air defenses engaged incoming targets. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app that blasts caused damage across five districts, striking three apartment blocks and a building that houses a pre-school.
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A series of massive attacks on Kyiv since New Year’s Day has repeatedly knocked out power and heating to hundreds of apartment blocks, city authorities said, complicating emergency repairs as crews work in subzero conditions to restore heat and electricity. Residents once again took shelter in metro stations as missiles and drones were intercepted over the city.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes targeted energy infrastructure and warned of “tough decisions” to keep systems from freezing. He said coolant had to be drained from 820 apartment buildings connected to a single thermal plant to prevent catastrophic damage. “The goal is obvious: to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat in severe cold,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Public broadcaster Suspilne reported that power was knocked out in the Kharkiv region towns of Izium and Balakliia. It also said two apartment buildings were struck in the northern city of Sumy. Local officials did not immediately report casualties from those incidents.
The latest attacks coincided with competing claims about a pause in strikes on energy infrastructure. Both Russia and Ukraine had discussed a temporary moratorium at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump, but Moscow said the ceasefire ended Sunday, while Kyiv maintained it was to last a week from Jan. 30. On Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had not targeted Ukrainian energy facilities with missiles or drones in the prior 24 hours, though steady shelling continued to hit energy sites near the front line.
Against that backdrop, Ukraine has agreed with Western partners on a multi-tiered plan to enforce any future ceasefire, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the discussions. The framework, discussed in December and January among Ukrainian, European and American officials, envisions escalating responses if Russia breaches an armistice.
Under the proposal, any violation would trigger action within 24 hours, starting with a diplomatic warning and, if necessary, Ukrainian military steps to halt the infraction, according to the FT. If hostilities persisted, a second phase would activate intervention by a “coalition of the willing” including many European Union members as well as the United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland and Turkey.
In the event of an expanded attack, the report said, a coordinated response by a Western-backed force that could include U.S. military participation would be triggered 72 hours after the initial breach. The FT said envoys from Kyiv, Moscow and Washington plan to meet in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday for talks aimed at laying the groundwork for such an arrangement.
The overnight strikes underscored the vulnerability of Ukraine’s power grid as temperatures plunge and demand rises, and they highlighted the fragile politics surrounding any prospective ceasefire. Even as negotiators prepare to convene in Abu Dhabi, emergency workers in Kyiv and Kharkiv confronted a familiar task: racing to patch shattered infrastructure before the cold does deeper damage.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
