Russian air attack knocks out power for over a million Ukrainians

Russian air attack knocks out power for over a million Ukrainians

By Max Hunder

Sat, January 24, 2026 at 4:45 PM UTC

3 min read

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A person walks past a Point of Invincibility centre, a government‑run shelter that provides basic services and heat during blackouts, set up next to an apartment building left without heating and facing long power cuts after critical civil infrastructure was hit by recent Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

Firefighters walk in front of semi-trucks destroyed during Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

People take shelter inside a metro station during a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov

Police officers inspect remains of a suicide drone after Russian overnight strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Firefighters extinguish semi-trucks damaged during Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

A resident walks at a compound of a car workshop and garage hit during Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

A firefighter extinguishes semi-trucks damaged during Russian overnight drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 24, 2026. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Kyiv residents cope with cold after heating loss as critical civil infrastructure was hit by recent Russian missile and drone strikes

A person walks past a Point of Invincibility centre, a government‑run shelter that provides basic services and heat during blackouts, set up next to an apartment building left without heating and facing long power cuts after critical civil infrastructure was hit by recent Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 23, 2026. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

By Max Hunder

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Russia launched another vast attack on Ukraine's energy system in the small hours of Saturday, rocking Kyiv with explosions throughout the night and leaving 1.2 million properties without power countrywide during subzero winter cold.

Over 3,000 buildings in the capital were without heating on Saturday evening, down from 6,000 in the morning, as ‌temperatures hovered around -10 degrees Celsius (14 F).

Many residents' apartments were already freezing cold from disruption to Kyiv's centralised heat distribution system following previous attacks.

Moscow carried out the strikes ‌as trilateral, U.S.-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine continued into a second day in the United Arab Emirates, later adjourning with no sign of compromise.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia targeted the capital and four regions in the country's north and east.

"We are quickly restoring damaged power generation facilities, increasing imports as much as possible, and introducing new alternative capacity," she said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed ⁠in the capital city and four were injured, ‌three of them requiring hospitalisation, while over 30 people including a child were injured in Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv.

Klitschko visited Kyiv's worst-affected district, the northeastern suburb of Troyeshchyna, where 600 buildings were without power, water ‍and heat.

He said vulnerable residents were being given hot food and medicine, and that the city was rolling out extra, heated shelters which would be operating around the clock in the area.

Kyiv recently loosened its wartime military curfew to allow people in freezing apartments to go to heated tents or public buildings at night.

Russia, which has pummelled Ukraine's power grid since November 2022, nine months into its full-scale invasion, is conducting ‌its heaviest bombardment campaign on energy facilities this winter, leaving people across Ukraine with only a few hours of electricity a day and some without heat or water.

Over 800,000 people in the capital and another 400,000 in the northern region of Chernihiv were without power after the latest attacks, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

Ukraine's air force said Russia had unleashed 375 drones and 21 missiles, including two of its rarely deployed Tsirkon ballistic missiles, in its overnight attack.

The sky over Kyiv was lit up by regular orange flashes ⁠as air defences fired on missiles and drones descending on the capital. Loud booms echoed around the city's tall buildings.

Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, reported strikes in at least four districts. A medical facility was among the buildings damaged.

Before Saturday, Kyiv had already endured two mass overnight attacks since the New Year that have knocked out power and heating to ‍hundreds of residential buildings.

Emergency workers were ⁠still engaged in restoring services to residents that had been knocked out by those attacks, and Klitschko said many of the buildings that had lost heating on Saturday had only recently had it restored.

In Kharkiv, a frequent target 30 km (18 miles) ⁠from the Russian border and much closer to eastern battlefronts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones had hit several districts.

Writing on Telegram, Terekhov said the drones ‌had struck a dormitory for displaced people and two medical facilities including a maternity hospital.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and ‌Ron Popeski; editing by Chris Reese, Tom Hogue and Mark Heinrich)

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