Russia has launched a major Christmas morning attack on Ukraine’s energy system and cities in the east of the country with cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukrainian officials said.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the attack as “inhuman” and rounded on Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
“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,” Zelenskyy 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.
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.
Since the start of the war in February 2022, Russia has severely damaged Ukraine’s power grid by repeatedly bombing it, almost halving its generating capacity and causing regular power cuts.
Ukraine has regularly appealed to its allies for more robust air-defence systems to thwart Russian attacks on the country’s power system.
“This year, it is the 13th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the 10th massive attack on the company’s energy facilities,” Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said.
Zelenskyy signed a law in July last year to move the official Christmas Day holiday to 25 December, departing from the Russian Orthodox tradition of celebrating on 7 January.
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Washington cleared Ukraine last month to use long-range US missiles against military targets inside Russia, prompting fiery rhetoric and vows of retaliation from Moscow.
Russia launched almost 200 missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in November, with Zelenskyy alleging cluster munitions had been fired in what he called a “despicable escalation” almost three years into the war.
Both sides are scrambling to gain an upper hand before Donald Trump is inaugurated as US president in January. The incoming president has promised to bring a swift end to the conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.
Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the frontline in the face of troop and ammunition shortages.