Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure during Christmas Day attack

Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and over 100 attack drones were used to strike Ukraine’s power sources, in a statement on X. 

At least one person was killed in the Dnipro region in the attack, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on messaging app Telegram, adding that heating was disrupted for 155 residential buildings in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. He also said 500,000 recipients or 2,677 buildings in Kharkiv region were without heat.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said one Russian missile passed Moldovan and Romanian airspace. 

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane?” Zelenskyy said. “They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.” 

He said Ukraine has managed to shoot down at least 50 missiles and a significant number of drones. 

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it had conducted a “massive strike” on what it said were critical energy facilities in Ukraine that support the work of Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.

It said in the same statement that Russian forces had also taken control of the settlement of Vidrodzhennia in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Russia again “massively attacks energy infrastructure,” in a Facebook statement. Ukraine’s Air Force alerted multiple missiles fired at Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava regions east of the country. 

“The [electricity] distribution system operator takes the necessary measures to limit consumption to minimize negative consequences for the power system,” he said. “As soon as the security situation allows, energy workers will establish the damage caused.”

More than a dozen attacks on Ukraine’s power grid

Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, DTEK, said Russia struck one of their thermal power plants Wednesday morning, making it the 13th attack on Ukraine’s power grid this year.

“Denying light and warmth to millions of peace-loving people as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered,” Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, wrote on his X account.

Ukrainian state energy operator, Ukrenergo, applied preemptive power outages across the country, due to a “massive missile attack,” leading to electricity going out in several districts of the capital, Kyiv.

At least seven strikes targeted Kharkiv, sparking fires across the city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At least three people were injured, local authorities said.

“Kharkiv is under massive missile fire. A series of explosions rang out in the city and there are still ballistic missiles flying in the direction of the city. Stay in safe places,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.