Russia attacks Ukraine energy network in Christmas assault

Bloomberg News

Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, prompting the country’s grid operator to limit power supplies on Christmas Day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday on Telegram the assault from Moscow included 70 missiles, some of them ballistic, and more than 100 attack drones. Russia separately said it downed 59 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions.

Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, restricted electricity as a precautionary measure, according to another Telegram post. Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the step was necessary to “minimize the negative consequences for the energy system.” In the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine, 500,000 people have been left without heat, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said, according to RBC Ukraine.

Russian forces have attacked energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine multiple times since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Christmas Day missile barrage followed a Moscow assault five days ago on the Ukraine capital of Kyiv for the first time in almost a month.

The attacks come as both sides await the return to the White House of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to end the war and suggested Zelenskyy should be “prepared to make a deal.”