Russian strikes leave Kyiv without heat and power amid extreme cold

Russian drone and missile strikes have left Kyiv facing its worst heating and electricity outage of the war as the city endures an extreme cold snap, and emergency services have set up tents that offer electricity and heat, The New York Times reported. City authorities said about 500 apartment buildings had no heat.

Officials reported that last Friday strikes hit transformer substations in and around Kyiv, cutting the capital from power elsewhere in the country, and that Russia also struck all three natural gas and coal-burning power plants in Kyiv, shutting down the city’s internal sources of heat and electricity.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center, said Kyiv, which typically consumes about 2,000 megawatts, was surviving on less than a tenth of that as authorities routed what power remained to water pumps, the subway and other critical infrastructure. The Times said the attacks appear intended to dent public morale and pressure the government in peace talks brokered by the Trump administration.

Mr. Kharchenko said Russia had narrowed its focus to Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro, aiming to isolate cities from the national network and then destroy their power plants, with volleys timed to disrupt repairs. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said, “We are fighting to survive,” appealed for more interceptors — including American-made Patriot missiles — and warned that repeated strikes were complicating repairs.

Key Topics

World, Kyiv, Russia, Vitali Klitschko, Transformer Substations, Power Plants