Russia Launches Its Biggest Strike on Kyiv's Power Grid Since Last Winter, Killing 4
Sirens sounded for more than 20 hours as drones and missiles hit the Trypilska power plant. Ukraine says Russia used a steel-cutting drone on a power pylon for the first time.
Russia struck Ukraine's energy system on Wednesday in its first sustained mass assault on the grid since last winter, killing four people and wounding eight across Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukrainian officials said.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital for more than 20 hours, potentially the longest alert of the entire war. Ukraine's air force said defenders intercepted 254 of 285 drones launched between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. They also downed or suppressed five missiles and 155 additional drones across the country.
Russian forces targeted the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant and other energy facilities. State grid operator Ukrenergo ordered emergency power shutdowns by 5:40 p.m., and trams and electric buses stopped running in several districts of Kyiv. Outages also hit Kyiv Oblast and the Chernihiv and Zhytomyr regions.
Three of the dead were in Kyiv. Two women were killed in the Sviatoshynskyi district when a drone hit their home at about 3 a.m., and another person died in the Solomianskyi district when a warehouse was damaged. In Kyiv Oblast, rescuers found the body of a child in Vyshhorod. Residents were wounded in Bucha, Obukhiv, Bila Tserkva and other towns, and the damage included homes, vehicles, warehouses and an educational institution.
Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to the president, said Russia used a new kind of warhead for the first time: a shaped-charge cutting warhead built to destroy high-voltage pylons and steel bridge structures. It carries a 40-kilogram main charge plus four additional destructive modules. "I think the enemy plans to attack important high-voltage power transmission lines," Beskrestnov said.
Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said the strike was the largest combined attack since the previous heating season ended. President Volodymyr Zelensky tied the assault to the approach of winter and to the shortage of air defense. "Each interceptor missile really saves lives," he said. "And the closer to winter, the more such protection is needed."
Ukraine's energy grid took heavy damage in the winters of 2022 to 2025, when Russian strikes left millions without heat and electricity for long stretches. Wednesday's assault suggests Moscow has resumed its campaign against power generation and transmission as temperatures begin to fall.
The attacks continued Thursday, when a Russian drone hit a Kyiv school while more than 100 children sheltered inside. Ukraine is pressing allies for more air-defense missiles and for sanctions on suppliers to Russia's Rassvet satellite network, which Kyiv fears could give Moscow real-time targeting data once the constellation is complete.
