KYIV — Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy grid with missiles and drones Tuesday, causing power outages in Kyiv and other major cities as temperatures dropped below freezing just a day after President Donald Trump restated that the Kremlin had agreed to pause power sector attacks.
Energy operators have described it as the worst attack on the power sector so far this year. Trump said Thursday that he had persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin to refrain from targeting Kyiv and other cities for one week, during a period of “extraordinary cold.” A day later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the pause would be over by Sunday.
On Monday, though, Trump repeated that Putin had promised he would refrain from hitting Kyiv and other cities, suggesting that the president thought the ceasefire was still in effect. “I asked him if he wouldn’t shoot for a period of one week. No missiles going into Kyiv or any other towns, and he’s agreed to do it. So it’s something,” he said in the Oval Office.
Hours later, the missiles began falling on Kyiv.
Russian forces unleashed a hail of fire across Ukraine overnight Tuesday, targeting its power plants and energy infrastructure even as temperatures approached minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-20 Celsius) in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday morning that Moscow launched some 70 missiles and 450 attack drones. The missiles in particular are devastating, and there were several times more than has been typical during an overnight barrage.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelensky wrote. Talks among Ukrainian, U.S. and Russian delegations to resolve the conflict are scheduled to resume in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Wednesday.
As Ukraine cleaned up from the onslaught, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv for an official visit, during which he discussed possible security arrangements for Ukraine.
Speaking before the country’s parliament, Rutte said that as soon as a peace deal is reached in the four-year-old conflict, certain countries will immediately provide armed forces, aircraft and naval support, while others will provide alternative forms of assistance.
His comments echoed a report Tuesday in the Financial Times that Ukraine has discussed with the United States and Europe a proposal for a coordinated military response to any Russian violations of an agreed armistice.
Russia, however, has rejected the deployment of any Western troops in Ukraine as part of a final agreement and insists that Moscow must be part of any security framework, which would give it effective veto over any response.
In the meantime, Ukrainian officials are pleading with their Western allies for more air defense systems. The air force reported Tuesday that 27 missiles and 31 drones managed to avoid air defenses and strike 27 locations across Ukraine.
Moscow forces “delivered a massive strike overnight” with “precision-guided weapons” and drones on Ukrainian defense enterprises and energy facilities, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The strikes were “in retaliation for Ukraine’s terrorist attacks on civilian facilities in Russian territory,” that statement added without providing further details.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said in a social media post that the attacks had caused “significant damage” to the company’s thermal power plants, though it did not specify which ones had been hit. Because of the strikes, DTEK said, it introduced “emergency power cuts” in parts of Kyiv.
DTEK said the assault “dealt the most powerful blow to the energy sector since the beginning of the year.” The strikes hit thermal power stations in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv and the country’s power system overall was “operating with serious restrictions,” the company said in a video statement.
Ukraine’s state energy grid operator Ukrenergo also said that there were “a significant number of power outages” in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as the Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, and Odesa regions.
All through the winter, one of the coldest in years, Russia has been attacking power plants around Kyiv and the rest of the country, leaving people without heat, water or electricity. Soon after repairs are made, a new wave of strikes plunges neighborhoods back into darkness.
City officials said the assault injured three people and caused damage in five districts, including fires in apartment buildings. Close to 1,200 multistory buildings were without heating, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
“Putin waited for the temperatures to drop and stockpiled drones and missiles to continue his genocidal attacks against the Ukrainian people,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
“Neither anticipated diplomatic efforts in Abu Dhabi this week nor his promises to the United States kept him from continuing terror against ordinary people in the harshest winter,” he said.
Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
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