Crystal Dike
Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes on Thursday plunged large parts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, into darkness, leaving nine people injured and disrupting water supplies in several districts, city officials said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that residents in the city’s eastern areas were hit hardest by the power outages. Five of the nine injured victims have been hospitalized, while repair crews are working to restore electricity and water services.
In a separate attack in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine, a seven-year-old child was killed and three others injured, according to regional head Ivan Fedorov. The area came under intense bombardment overnight following several nights of air raids.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk described the latest wave of strikes as a “massive assault” on the country’s energy infrastructure, with several facilities and apartment buildings damaged in Kyiv. Images released by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services showed firefighters battling flames at a 10-storey residential building.
President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks as “cynical and calculated,” saying they targeted “everything that sustains normal life” as temperatures begin to drop. Writing on X, he urged Ukraine’s allies to take “real steps” by delivering more air defence systems and enforcing sanctions.
“What’s needed is not window dressing but decisive action — from the United States, Europe and the G7,” Zelensky said, adding that Russia had launched about 450 drones and more than 30 missiles aimed at crippling Ukraine’s power grid.
He warned that the strikes were part of Moscow’s ongoing campaign to destroy the country’s energy network, with additional attacks already disrupting gas facilities. Authorities have placed the entire nation on alert for further assaults, including potential hypersonic Kinzhal missile strikes that are harder to detect.