Russia launches major Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

Russia launched a massive aerial attack using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across the country, on Christmas Day.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack as “inhuman”.

“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram.

He said there had been hits and blackouts in several regions. “The targets are our energy. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he said.

The attack left half a million people in Kharkiv region without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere.

“Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said the transmission system operator had imposed restrictions on the electricity supply to minimise the impact.

At least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said.

“Kharkiv is under a massive missile attack. A series of explosions were heard in the city and there are still ballistic missiles heading towards the city,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram early on Wednesday.

The governor of Kherson region also reported on Wednesday that one person had been killed in the last 24 hours. In Dnipropetrovsk region, a search and rescue operation after strikes on Christmas Eve found a 43-year-old man had been killed and 17 others wounded, the Dnipropetrovsk governor, Sergiy Lysak, said.

Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing that it had conducted a massive strike on critical energy infrastructure facilities that supply Ukraine’s defence industry.

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, called the attacks “Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine”.

She said on X: “More than 70 missiles and 100 drones, directed at Ukrainian families celebrating in their homes and the energy infrastructure that keeps them warm. For the third holiday season, Russia weaponises winter.”

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, also condemned the attacks. “I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people, and the leadership of President Zelenskyy, in the face of further drone and missile attacks from Putin’s bloody and brutal war machine, with no respite, even at Christmas,” he said. “As we go into the new year, it remains vital that we redouble our resolve to place Ukraine in the strongest possible position to end Russia’s illegal aggression against the Ukrainian people.”