Russia returns to attack neighborhoods and power plants of Kyiv with ballistic missiles

BarcelonaRussia launched a new large-scale ballistic missile attack on Kyiv early this Wednesday, causing damage in a residential neighborhood and hitting several power plants in the Ukrainian capital. The attack confirms that Russia is not committed to the energy truce announced by Donald Trump last weekend. The attacks have left at least 3 dead and 22 injured in the Ukrainian capital. Authorities have yet to comment on the attacks against the power plants or the extent of the damage caused.

"It has been a very difficult night: the attack began around four in the morning and did not stop for three hours," explains Oxana Klimuk, a professor at the Taras Shevchenko University in the Ukrainian capital, to ARA from Kyiv. "At home, we have intermittent power cuts, and there are many neighborhoods without electricity and problems with public transport." According to the energy operator's schedule, there will be no supply at her home between 2:00 PM and 4:30 PM and from 11:00 PM, to distribute the energy they can generate. As long as they have electricity, she will teach her Hispanic philology classes online, as she has been doing for a month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting London this Wednesday and will travel to Brussels tomorrow, lamented on Tuesday that allies had not shared intelligence information about the Russian ballistic missile attacks they suffered on Monday and Tuesday. Kyiv reiterated this morning that, for the second consecutive day, allies had not provided any prior warning of the launches. The Ukrainian Air Force also stated that it had not received any alerts on either day.

It is clear that the Kremlin is continuing its pattern of destroying energy infrastructure to once again condemn Ukrainians to what will be the fifth winter of supply cuts, darkness, and cold. This comes after Trump announced a purchase of diesel from Russia to alleviate price hikes in the United States, which gives oxygen to the Kremlin, and reiterated that it is Zelensky who is stalling an agreement.

Several power plants in the capital have been the target of attacks, as explained to the portal The Kyiv Independent by an official in the energy sector who spoke on condition of anonymity. Russia continues to intensify attacks against energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months. The first explosions were heard in the capital late in the evening, when a Russian missile, with practically no prior warning, struck a nine-story residential building in the Desnianskyi district and caused a large fire, according to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. At least two people have died and 21 more have been injured as a result of the Russian attack on the residential building, according to Klitschko. Of the injured, 16 have been hospitalized and four are in serious condition.

Oksana's 14-year-old son also studies online at a school in Kherson, where they are from. Kherson is very close to the front line and schooling there has been done entirely online for a long time. They prefer this option to sending him to his school: in Kyiv, classes continue to be in-person, but every time the alarms sound they must be interrupted to go down to the shelters. The teacher is resigned and still has the strength to endure what will be the fifth winter of the war: "And what can we do? We have to defend the city and continue with our jobs and our lives". She admits that, if things get too complicated, they will leave the capital to move to her husband's parents' house, in the city of Lutsk, in the west of the country, where the attacks are not as intense.

Between five and seven in the morning local time, more than a dozen explosions were heard, which caused power supply cuts. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine has reported that the attacks also caused damage to a "non-residential" building, of which no further details have been given, and to two homes.

The truce, non-existent

The latest Russian attacks against energy infrastructure come a few days after United States President Donald Trump declared an energy truce and demanded that Ukraine stop attacking Russian oil facilities. Trump blamed these attacks—and not the war he himself launched against Iran which caused the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—for the rise in oil prices. Zelensky responded that he would be willing to accept an energy truce if Russian forces stopped attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure and asserted that he had halted drone attacks against Russian refineries.