Russia hits Kyiv power grid, 4 killed
Russia pressed its missile and drone barrage of Kyiv and areas around the Ukrainian capital, killing four people, including a child, while mainly targeting the power grid, officials said Wednesday.
Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August is putting pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat, power and running water.
The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions about whether it marked the start of Russia’s anticipated cold weather campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponise winter.” “There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. “But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted the increase in Russian strikes has brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine.” “Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.
Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with US efforts to halt the fighting, 4½ years after Russia invaded its neighbour. Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, but its demand for Ukraine to surrender land is unacceptable for Kyiv.
A boy was killed and three other people were rescued from the rubble of a private home in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration. The attacks also killed three people in the capital and wounded at least four others, according to authorities.
