Russia launched its most powerful barrage of the year against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, Ukrainian officials said, knocking out heating for hundreds of thousands as temperatures plunged below minus 20 C and ahead of a new round of talks aimed at halting the four-year war.
The strikes hit as an arctic cold snap gripped the country and damaged the base of Kyiv’s iconic Soviet-era Motherland monument, adding a symbolic wound to widespread utility outages. “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, condemning the attacks.
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Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 71 missiles and launched 450 attack drones targeting high-rise buildings and thermal power plants. Energy Minister Denys Shmygal said the assaults deliberately left “hundreds of thousands of families, including children” without heat in “the harshest winter frosts.” DTEK, the country’s largest private energy provider, called it the most powerful strike on power facilities since the start of 2026.
Kyiv’s mayoral office reported five people wounded in the capital, where officials said thousands were without electricity and heating across more than 1,000 buildings. Residents stepped over ice-glazed debris outside damaged apartment blocks. “Our windows are broken and we have no heating,” said Anastasia Grytsenko. “We don’t know what to do.”
Strikes also battered Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, temporarily cutting heat to about 100,000 subscribers, according to regional governor Oleg Synegubov. Authorities shut off service to more than 800 buildings to prevent the network from freezing, urging residents to warm up at 24-hour “invincibility points.” Temperatures plunged to about minus 19 C in Kyiv and minus 23 C in Kharkiv.
Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna said the damage to the Motherland monument’s base was “both symbolic and cynical,” arguing the attack echoed the crimes the statue commemorates from World War II. Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but Kyiv and its European allies accuse Russia of a campaign to freeze Ukraine’s population by degrading power and heating during winter.
The strikes came as Ukrainian and Russian representatives prepared to meet in Abu Dhabi for a second round of talks. “Direct talks are now underway and this is important progress. But Russian attacks like those last night do not signal seriousness about peace,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Ukraine’s parliament, urging allies to “dig deep into their stockpiles” to provide air defenses.
Rutte said NATO’s attention had not been diverted from supporting Kyiv despite a crisis over U.S. demands on Greenland. He added that European members of the alliance were willing to offer strong security guarantees and deploy forces to Ukraine to ensure any cease-fire endures. “Ukraine needs to know with absolute certainty that whatever sacrifices you’ve made… will not be at risk of repetition,” he said.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Ukraine this month to mark four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, a visit her office said would underscore the bloc’s unity and determination in the face of continued aggression.
On the southern front, Russian-installed authorities in occupied Kherson region said Ukrainian shelling killed three people in Nova Kakhovka, including a local administration employee, and damaged a municipal building and a fruit shop. The claim could not be independently verified.
The United States has been pressing for a settlement, but the first trilateral session in Abu Dhabi last weekend produced no breakthrough. The next round is expected to focus on territory after Moscow demanded Kyiv withdraw from the Donetsk region and warned it is prepared to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force if diplomacy fails. Kyiv has called those terms unacceptable.
The Kremlin last week said it had agreed to a U.S. request not to strike Kyiv for seven days, a pause that ended Sunday. The renewed assault on power infrastructure suggests the window for de-escalation remains fragile as winter deepens and negotiators reconvene under the shadow of continued bombardment.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
