Russia carried out a large-scale overnight air assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Saturday, targeting electricity generation and distribution facilities, Ukrainian officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attack involved more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles of various types, striking the national power grid, generation sites, and key distribution substations.
Nearly four years into the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s already battered energy sector is increasingly strained by repeated strikes, accumulated wartime damage, and harsh winter conditions.
“Every day, Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes,” Zelenskiy wrote on X. “It is crucial that everyone who supports the trilateral negotiations respond to this. Moscow must be deprived of the ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine.”
Russia did not immediately comment on the latest attacks.
Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said the strikes hit two thermal power stations in western Ukraine and damaged core components of the electricity distribution system, including substations and major transmission lines.
“Russian criminals carried out another massive attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities,” Shmyhal said on Telegram, adding that repair crews were ready to begin restoration work as soon as security conditions allowed.
The strikes came as temperatures began falling sharply, with forecasts predicting lows of minus 14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days.
The renewed assault also followed only days after the latest round of U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia aimed at ending the war. Despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and multiple negotiation rounds, diplomatic efforts have so far produced no concrete results.
Since autumn 2025, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and other energy infrastructure, triggering repeated blackouts and leaving millions without electricity for hours at a time.
Ukrainian officials said emergency power cuts were introduced nationwide. Shmyhal added that Ukraine requested emergency electricity imports from Poland to help stabilize the grid.
Regional authorities reported strikes across multiple areas, including the western regions of Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv.
Officials said the Burshtyn and Dobrotvir thermal power plants in western Ukraine were among the facilities hit.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said its equipment suffered significant damage at thermal power plants in several regions, describing the attack as the 10th strike on its thermal power stations since October 2025.
“Since Russians have been targeting energy facilities in different regions of our country, power outages may last much longer,” said Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi.
He added that air raid alerts lasted more than six hours in the Lviv region, which borders Poland.
Polish authorities said two airports in southeastern Poland temporarily suspended operations as a precaution due to Russian strikes in nearby Ukrainian territory. The airports later resumed operations.