Russia launches another major strike on Ukraine’s power grid in freezing temperatures

Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday (January 13, 2026), aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour approaches the four-year mark.

Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Mr. Zelenskyy said.

The daytime temperature in Kyiv, which has endured freezing temperatures for more than two weeks, was minus 12 degrees C, with streets covered in ice and the rumble of generators heard throughout the capital.

Kyiv has grappled with severe power shortages for days, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday night’s strikes caused the biggest electrical outage the city has faced so far.

Kyiv residents huddle for warmth

More than 500 residential buildings remained without central heating Tuesday (January 13, 2026). Throughout the city, bare trees were weighed down with icicles and snow was piled up next to sidewalks.

To cope, friends and relatives gathered in those apartments that have power or hot water, at least temporarily. They charge their phones, take hot showers, or share a warm drink.

Klitschko ordered the city to provide one hot meal per day to needy residents. He also announced that workers in the city’s water, heating and road maintenance services would receive bonuses for working “day and night” to restore critical infrastructure.

Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.

On Monday (January 12, 2026), the U.S. accused Russia of a “dangerous and inexplicable escalation” of the fighting at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.

Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on February 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponising winter.”

The attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.

In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.