Ukraine’s power grid under ‘massive attack’ from Russia as freezing temperatures set in

KYIV, Ukraine — More than 700,000 homes and businesses were without power across a frigid Ukraine early Thursday after Russia launched a widespread missile and drone attack on the country’s energy sector.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the “complex strike” was a retaliation for Ukraine’s using American-made ATACMS missiles to strike inside Russia. Despite the widespread civilian impact, he claimed, without evidence, that the assault targeted military sites.

Air raid sirens began to ring out late Wednesday and blared for more than nine hours. People across the country took refuge in bomb shelters, subway stations and even their own bathrooms, waiting out the bombardment alongside strollers, pets and what few blankets they could carry.

The power grid was targeted just as cold weather begins to bite, a tactic that Ukrainian officials and Western analysts say Russia deliberately deploys. The temperature is forecast to stay below 35 degrees Fahrenheit all of Thursday, with fog in the air and snow already covering Kyiv’s roofs.

“It was about 6 a.m. I was sleeping and heard a very loud explosion in my dream,” said Valeria Grinchuk, 24, a makeup artist in the city of Lutsk. “I just ran into the corridor with my cats and immediately heard two more explosions,” at which point the power went out, she added.

“I couldn’t see what was on the news and so didn’t know what to expect,” she said. Grinchuk, who has a gas stove, said “we’ve gotten used to it a little” but described the conditions as “very uncomfortable.”

“I feel very strong hatred, and I still can’t get in my head the fact that this is all reality,” she said. “I don’t understand how with so much beauty in the world you can make people’s lives such hell.”

The physical discomfort of the outages is compounded by the uncertainty of President-elect Donald Trump’s looming inauguration on Jan. 20. His reluctance to commit support for Ukraine brings a huge degree of uncertainty to the conflict, just as Russia is making its fastest battlefield gains since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

It was Russia’s 11th attack on Ukraine’s energy sector this year, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.”

Ukraine said it had detected 188 incoming “attack targets,” including 57 cruise missiles fired from Tupolev Tu-95 bombers, 28 Kalibr cruise missiles fired from ships in the Black Sea and 97 Iran-designed Shahed drones, according to a post by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Again, energy system is under a massive attack from the enemy,” Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, wrote on social media. “Attacks on energy facilities are taking place all over Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said the attacks included cluster munitions, which “make it much more difficult for our rescuers and energy workers to eliminate the consequences of the impact.”

President Joe Biden called the attack “horrific” in a statement Thursday that aimed to reassure Ukraine of U.S. support.

“This attack is outrageous and serves as yet another reminder of the urgency and importance of supporting the Ukrainian people in their defense against Russian aggression,” Biden said.

“Earlier this year, and at my direction, the United States began prioritizing air defense exports so they go to Ukraine first,” he added. “The Department of Defense has delivered hundreds of additional air defense missiles to Ukraine, as a consequence of this decision, and further deliveries are underway.”

Putin gave details of the attack at a summit in Kazakhstan of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“I repeat once again that these strikes on our part were in response to unrelenting strikes onto the Russian territory with the U.S. ATACMS missiles,” he said. “As I have said many times, there will always be a response from our part.”

He derided the way Ukraine “nags its masters for other weapons.”

Ukraine has made no secret of its desire for more Western assistance, making the case that Kyiv is defending not just itself but all of Europe and the West against Kremlin aggression. After the attack, Zelenskyy reiterated calls for his allies to provide more military assistance. 

“Each such attack proves that air defense systems are needed now in Ukraine, where they save lives, and not in storage bases,” he said. “This is especially important in the winter, when we have to protect our infrastructure from targeted Russian strikes.”

Ukraine’s existing air defenses were able to bring down more than 100 of the incoming projectiles, the army said, but dozens got through.

Worst hit were several western regions that do not often face Russian attack. As of Thursday morning, 523,000 homes and businesses in the Lviv region were without power, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram.

In neighboring Volyn, 215,000 customers were without electricity, Gov. Ivan Rudnytskyi, wrote, after a transformer substation was hit in the regional capital, Lutsk. Other outages were reported in the Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr and Rivne oblasts, with many schools telling children to study at home.

In Cherkasy, entrepreneur Elena Bondarenko, 52, endured a night of “sirens, drones, then you don’t sleep listening to every sound and monitoring news. It was scary and unpleasant,” she said.

She and her husband have endured power cuts before. This time they faced hours more without electricity, and another outage was scheduled in the evening as the grid tries to cope with the destruction.

“It’s difficult to live like that. It ruins all your life. It ruins the order of life and any plans you make,” she said of the blackouts. “Everything that is happening now is awful. Well, a human can adjust to everything, but I don’t want to get used to it. Is it even possible to live like that?”

In Kyiv, officials said, anti-aircraft guns intercepted all inbound targets, although falling debris caused damage in the Dniprovskyy and Darnytskyy districts, damaging a truck and buildings in an industrial area.

The Energy Ministry said in an online post that “power engineers are working to provide backup power schemes where possible. They have already begun restoration work where the security situation allows.”

The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attack, which came hours after Trump said he would nominate retired Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.

Kellogg has suggested he could condition U.S. military aid to Kyiv on its participation in peace talks with Russia.

The U.S. has provided $70 billion in military aid to Ukraine, more than any other country. Trump has repeatedly declined to commit to continuing the assistance, instead saying he would finish the war before his inauguration — without saying how.