Russia kept up its missile and drone barrage on Kyiv and surrounding areas overnight, killing four people, including a child, in an assault that mainly targeted the power grid, officials said on Wednesday.
The heavy attack caused power outages and raised questions over whether it marked the start of Russia’s anticipated cold-weather campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponize winter”.
Moscow has sharply escalated its aerial campaign since the end of August, piling pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat, power and running water, according to AP.
A boy was killed in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, and three other people were rescued from the rubble of a private home, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration.
The attacks also killed three people in the capital and wounded at least four others, according to authorities.
Civilian areas of at least four Kyiv districts were reported hit.
“There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram.
“But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted that the increase in Russian strikes had brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine”.
“Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.
Russia fired 2,850 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine in August, but had already launched 3,177 this month by Tuesday, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said.
Moscow has exploited gaps in Ukraine’s air defences by firing ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to stop.
The constant air raid alerts are disrupting daily life, sending people running for shelter and denting economic output.
The attacks come in waves, mostly aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Tuesday.
He said Ukraine needs more missiles for its US-made Patriot air defence systems to counter ballistic missiles, as well as for other ground-based defences.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that the main Russian targets were energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
He described it as “a difficult attack” as Moscow stretches Ukraine’s air defences.
Zelenskyy thanked foreign countries backing Ukraine for recent deliveries of air defence help.
“And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need,” he said.
“We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s bet on ballistic missile and drone terror does not pay off.”
The Russian Defence Ministry said the overnight attack hit a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant, an electrical substation, an energy storage facility and a data centre.
Ukrainian officials did not specifically confirm those strikes, as Kyiv wants to deny Moscow intelligence about how effective its attacks are.
Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with US efforts to halt the fighting, 4½ years after it invaded its neighbour.
Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, but its demand that Ukraine surrender land is unacceptable to Kyiv.
