Heavy overnight Russian strikes killed at least six people in Ukraine and knocked out power across large parts of Kyiv, as President Vladimir Putin appeared to disregard Donald Trump’s proposed “energy ceasefire”.
The attacks across several regions came after President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had received no advance warning from its Western allies before Russia struck a power plant in Kyiv.
Ukraine depends heavily on Western intelligence to detect incoming Russian attacks and help identify targets, but renewed tensions with US President Trump have raised questions about the future of those arrangements.
In Kyiv, a Russian strike on a multi-storey building in the Desnianskyi district killed two people. Another attack in the Golosiivsky district left one person dead.
Two people were killed and six others wounded in Russian attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Another person was killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
AFP reporters in Kyiv heard a series of explosions overnight and said electricity and water supplies were cut in eastern parts of the capital.
“Energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region have come under a massive ballistic missile strike. There are power disruptions in the capital,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram, urging residents to remain in shelters.
A rescue worker tackles a fire at a multi-storey residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, October 13
Residents stand behind a barrier at the site of a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Kyiv on October 14
An injured man speaks on the phone near a residential building damaged by a Russian ballistic missile as firefighters battle the blaze in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district on October 14
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, said on the same platform that the attack had triggered emergency power cuts in the Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi, Pecherskyi and Solomianskyi districts, as well as parts of Golosiivsky.
Additional Russian ballistic missile attacks were reported in the Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions, while Sumy and Chernigiv also came under attack.
The governor of Russia’s Saratov region, citing preliminary estimates, said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed one person in the city of Balakovo.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defence forces had shot down nearly 500 drones flying towards the Russian capital overnight.
Russian authorities said about 160 more drones had been downed over the Rostov region, while others were reported to have targeted Moscow.
Earlier, Zelensky said a Russian strike on a Kyiv power facility on Tuesday evening had taken place without advance warning from Ukraine’s Western allies.
“A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, no early warning from our partners,” he wrote on Facebook.
“The main target was energy infrastructure, specifically CHP-4. Unfortunately, it was hit.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian systems detected the missiles only when they were approaching the city.
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‘This is absolutely unjust: when they are destroying our infrastructure, and Ukraine is not even receiving early warnings about ballistic missile launches,’ he added.
Kyiv, which is home to some three million people, has come under increasing attack from Russian drones and missiles, with energy infrastructure a key target.
Overnight from Monday to Tuesday, Kyiv residents heard explosions from Russian strikes before air raid sirens sounded, something that has occurred only rarely in the past.
Ukrainian officials attributed the issue to the Russian military’s use of hard-to-detect missiles or potential technical issues.
Trump announced an ‘energy ceasefire’ on his Truth Social network on Sunday, saying Russia and Ukraine had agreed to end their punishing long-range strikes on power infrastructure.
Zelensky voiced surprise at the news and said later strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure were Russian President Putin’s ‘answer’ to Trump’s claim.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Zelensky for strikes on Russian oil refineries and on Saturday suggested it was ‘time for Ukraine to get a new president’.
The American leader has faced criticism from Zelensky, and a political backlash at home, for announcing plans last week to buy diesel from Russia despite wartime sanctions on Moscow.
In a statement on X, the Ukrainian leader accused Putin of disrespecting the Trump administration by flagrantly ignoring the ‘energy ceasefire’.
‘Overnight, the Russians used 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones and loitering munitions against our energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, the Kyiv region, and Kharkiv,’ he wrote.
‘A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure – the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President.
‘The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale – Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States.
‘Russia does not consider the American President’s statements strong.’
He said at least 600,000 people were without power and warned that outages could become even more widespread.
He added that at least 26 power facilities and four in the oil and gas sector had been significantly damaged.
Infrastructure belonging to Ukraine’s state railway was also targeted.
‘The American President has all the effective and necessary tools to bring peace closer through strength, justice, and pressure on the aggressor,’ Zelensky continued.
‘We ask for additional packages of Patriot missile interceptors for Ukraine.
‘It is entirely fair for us to tell the United States, Europe, and all our partners that no country in the world should be left alone to face such a deranged and pro-war actor as Russia.’
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
