Massive Russian Barrage Knocks Out Heat and Water in Kyiv as Deep Freeze Bites

The radiators in the Kyiv apartment block had already gone cold when the first explosions sounded in the early hours of Jan. 20. In stairwells lit only by phone flashlights, residents in winter coats climbed 15 flights of stairs with buckets, hoping there was still enough pressure in the pipes to fill them before the taps ran dry. Outside, in air near 20 degrees below zero Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), the hum of generators and the distant crack of air defense fire competed with the buzz of Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

By dawn, much of Ukraine’s capital was without electricity, heat or running water after one of the largest combined drone and missile barrages since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.

Kyiv hit as strikes target energy facilities

Ukrainian officials said Russia fired more than 300 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles overnight into Jan. 20, aiming almost entirely at energy facilities across the country. The Ukrainian air force reported shooting down or jamming 27 missiles and 315 drones, but said five missiles and 24 drones penetrated defenses and struck 11 locations.

“This was one of the most massive attacks on our energy sector,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address. “Russia is again trying to weaponize winter against our people.”

The assault left Kyiv—home to roughly 3 million people before the war—confronting its worst blackout in weeks just as a severe cold snap gripped Ukraine and as the government pursued delicate talks with the United States and European partners on a possible framework for peace.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that 5,635 residential buildings in the capital lost heating after the strikes and that large parts of the city also suffered water outages. He reported at least one woman wounded and damage to several residential buildings and a primary school.

“Due to the attack on critical infrastructure, we have serious problems with power, heat and water supply,” Klitschko said. “Repair crews are working around the clock, but the situation remains difficult.”

The national grid operator, Ukrenergo, said consumers in Kyiv city and the Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, Kharkiv and Sumy regions were without electricity on the morning of Jan. 20. It imposed emergency shutdowns where pre-announced hourly outage schedules could no longer be maintained and warned that strict consumption limits and scheduled cuts would remain nationwide at least into Jan. 21.

Moscow’s claim, Kyiv’s rebuttal

The Russian Defense Ministry, in its daily statement, said its forces had struck “energy and transport infrastructure used to supply the Ukrainian armed forces,” along with what it described as military-industrial facilities. It denied targeting civilians directly. The claims could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian officials rejected that characterization, arguing that the pattern and timing of the strikes show an effort to inflict maximum hardship on ordinary people during the coldest weeks of winter.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told lawmakers earlier in January that Russia had carried out 612 attacks on energy infrastructure in 2025 alone and that “not a single power plant” in Ukraine had escaped damage since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. He accused Moscow of waging “energy terror” intended to force Ukrainians from their homes.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned repeated strikes on power, heat and water facilities, calling them “cruel” and saying they “can only be described as a clear breach of the rules of warfare.” Under international humanitarian law, civilian infrastructure is protected unless it is being used for military purposes and attacks meet strict tests of necessity and proportionality.

A grid under sustained pressure

The Jan. 20 barrage followed a series of heavy blows to Ukraine’s power system in the first weeks of the new year.

On Jan. 9, Russian missiles and drones knocked Kyiv almost entirely off the national grid by hitting transformer substations and all three gas- and coal-fired plants serving the capital, forcing thousands of residents to rely on generators and emergency heating points. Klitschko, facing growing frustration from residents, urged those who had the means to temporarily leave the city until conditions improved. His remark drew criticism from some central government officials, who said it risked panic.

A second large attack followed on Jan. 13, with Ukrainian authorities reporting nearly 300 Shahed-type drones and more than a dozen missiles launched against targets in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. On Jan. 14, Zelensky declared a nationwide energy emergency, citing cumulative damage to generating capacity and transmission lines.

By the time the latest wave hit on Jan. 20, Ukraine’s grid was already strained. The country entered the war with roughly 33.7 gigawatts of installed generation capacity, much of it at large nuclear and thermal plants. Officials now estimate available capacity has shrunk to around 14 gigawatts, due to the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant—once Europe’s largest—and repeated strikes on thermal, hydroelectric and cogeneration facilities.

Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a recent briefing that about 8.5 gigawatts of capacity had been damaged since October 2025 alone, erasing or degrading plants that had survived the first two winters of the war.

“To put it simply, we have to do more with much less,” Halushchenko said. “The system is holding, but every major attack pushes it closer to the edge.”

Life in the cold

In Kyiv, the strain is visible in apartment temperatures hovering only a few degrees above freezing, even when the power is on. Residents describe wearing hats and coats indoors, sleeping in one room to conserve heat and cooking over camping stoves when electricity and gas are cut simultaneously.

Local media and aid groups have reported families—especially those with children and elderly relatives—spending nights in “resilience centers,” public buildings equipped with generators, heating and internet access, or in parked train carriages that railway authorities keep heated as emergency shelters. According to one estimate cited by Ukrainian and Western outlets, around 600,000 people have left Kyiv since early January because of repeated outages and plunging temperatures, although there is no official figure.

The impact has been felt far beyond the capital. Authorities in the central Poltava region, relatively distant from the front line, said they had to implement some of the country’s longest forced outages after incoming strikes and load-sharing needs elsewhere left them with limited supply. Ukrenergo has repeatedly asked households and businesses that still have power to avoid using electric heaters, washing machines and other high-load appliances during peak hours.

A changing strategy—and rising costs

Analysts see a pattern in Russia’s evolving strategy. In the first winter of the full-scale invasion, Russian forces focused heavily on large power plants and district heating systems, causing widespread blackouts but leaving much of the high-voltage network intact. In subsequent campaigns, the emphasis shifted toward substations and transmission nodes—assets that are less visible but just as critical, and often easier to disable than big plants.

More recently, Russia has combined that approach with massive swarms of Shahed drones, which are relatively cheap compared with modern air defense missiles. Ukrainian officials say their forces still intercept the majority of incoming drones and a significant share of cruise missiles, but even a small number of successful strikes can shut down entire regions.

Zelensky said the cost of defending against one such night of attacks can reach about 80 million euros in air defense ammunition, underscoring what military experts describe as a widening economic imbalance between low-cost offensive weapons and high-cost defensive systems.

Diplomacy backdrop, uncertain outlook

The timing of the assault drew attention abroad. It coincided with visits by Ukrainian negotiators to Washington and discussions linked to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Zelensky has suggested that key security or peace documents could eventually be signed if conditions are right.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described the Jan. 20 barrage as a “barbaric strike” and a “wake-up call” for world leaders, arguing that it showed Moscow had no serious interest in ending the war through diplomacy.

For now, Ukraine’s grid remains functional, if battered. Repair crews—often working under air raid sirens and in freezing conditions—have restored at least partial service to many affected areas within days of each major strike. Western governments and international financial institutions have shipped transformers, mobile boiler units and other emergency equipment to help stabilize the system.

But officials and engineers warn there are limits to how many times critical assets can be repaired or replaced, and how long public patience can be stretched as the war’s fourth winter grinds on.

“In this war, the front line runs through power plants and substations as much as through trenches,” Halushchenko said. “Every time the lights come back on, we win a small battle. But as long as these attacks continue, the war over our energy system is far from over.”