‘Massive’ Russian air attack targets Ukraine’s battered energy grid

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Russia has unleashed a devastating aerial assault targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy describing it as “one of the largest strikes” against the nation’s power facilities since the war began.

Zelenskyy said 93 Russian cruise and ballistic missiles and 200 attack drones were launched at Ukraine, including at least one North Korean missile.

“A total of 81 missiles were shot down, 11 of which were cruise missiles intercepted by our F-16s,” he added. But regional government heads and energy companies reported several missiles evaded air defences and landed direct hits on critical infrastructure.

The recent barrage marks the latest escalation in Russia’s campaign to cripple Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. With the coldest weeks of winter approaching, Ukraine is facing severe power shortages, having lost more than half of its electricity production capacity.

Zelenskyy said the escalating Russian attacks were a sign that the Kremlin was not seeking an end to the war it started nearly three years ago.

“This is Putin’s ‘peace plan’ — to destroy everything,” the president said. “This is how he wants ‘negotiations’ — by terrorising millions of people.”

He called on Ukraine’s partners to do more to weaken Russia’s economy and limit access to components needed for its weapons. “A massive attack must be met with a massive reaction,” he said.

“Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.

Millions of Ukrainians, including those in the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv in the east and Lviv in the west, are preparing for possible disruptions to electricity and heating.

Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook on Friday morning that the nation’s energy system was under “massive attack”.

The Ukrainian air force published minute-by-minute warnings from dawn, tracing the trajectories of the missiles and drones and telling people on their way to work and school to seek shelter. Targets included cities in the far west near the EU borders as well as Kyiv and cities in the east and south.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear. But Ivano-Frankivsk regional governor Svitlana Onyshchuk wrote on Telegram that the western Carpathian region suffered missile strikes during what she described as “the most massive attack” on the area of the war.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, said in a statement that its thermal power plants were “seriously damaged”.

“This is the 12th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the ninth massive attack on the company’s energy enterprises this year,” the company added.

Russia’s defence ministry said the attack was a response to a Ukrainian strike on an airfield near the Russian city of Taganrog on Wednesday using US-supplied advanced Atacms missiles. The ministry said it had retaliated by hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure with air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, as well as drones.

The Kremlin also praised Donald Trump after he criticised Joe Biden’s outgoing administration for letting Ukraine strike targets deep inside Russian territory with the advanced western weapons, which the US president-elect said were “just escalating this war and making it worse”.

Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said Trump’s comments “completely align with Moscow’s positions” but added that it was too early to tell if he would reverse Biden’s decision.

The latest attacks were launched a month after Ukraine and Russia broke off talks for a second time since the summer about halting strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Qatar-mediated negotiations had nearly produced an agreement in August before being disrupted by Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region.

The two sides restarted tentative talks but they were halted again after the US lifted restrictions on the use of Atacms missiles inside Russia’s western border area.

The subsequent Ukrainian attacks infuriated Moscow, which launched a series of missile barrages and then fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine for the first time. Dubbed “Oreshnik”, meaning hazelnut, it can carry multiple nuclear warheads that hurtle towards targets at Mach 10.

On Wednesday, a US National Security Council official told the Financial Times that Moscow was considering a second attack with the new missile as soon as this weekend.

“As Putin has said publicly, Russia intends to launch another experimental Oreshnik missile at Ukraine, and it is possible that Russia could do so in the coming days,” the official said.

Russia wanted to use this weapon to intimidate Ukraine and its supporters, the official said, adding that the Oreshnik was “not a game-changer on the battlefield”.

“But the reality is that Russia likely possesses only a handful of these experimental missiles, and this weapon carries a smaller warhead than other missiles that Russia has regularly launched at Ukraine,” the official said.

Cartography by Steven Bernard