Overnight Russian missile and drone strikes have caused power cuts in large parts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and eight other regions.
Kyiv’s authorities said power was later restored to more than 540,000 consumers in the city – but many households are still without electricity.
Twelve people were injured in the city, said Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a seven-year-old boy was killed and seven others injured. Ten people were also injured in the central Cherkasy region.
Russia’s defence ministry said its “massive” strike with high-precision weapons – including hypersonic missiles – targeted energy facilities used by Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex”.
Russia – which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – has escalated attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities as well as transport infrastructure as winter approaches.
Reacting to the latest Russian strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated calls for allies to act decisively to “defend people from this terror”.
“What’s needed is not empty words but decisive action – from the United States, Europe and the G7 – in delivering air defence systems and enforcing sanctions,” he wrote.
Zelensky said that more than 450 drones and over 30 missiles targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, describing such attacks as “cynical and calculated” and against “everything that sustains normal life” as temperatures become colder.
More than 5,800 residential buildings in Kyiv were without electricity on Friday morning, local officials said. The city’s eastern districts were the worst hit.
Images of firefighters putting out blazes at a 10-storey building have been released by Ukraine’s state emergency services.
Residents in more than 7,000 buildings were left for hours without water – but the supplies were restored in the evening, the authorities said.
Public transport – including the capital’s widely used underground system – was also badly affected, with some stations forced to close after the Russian strikes.
So-called “invincibility” tents – where people can get hot water and charge their gadgets – have been set up on the streets of Kyiv and other cities.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russia was “inflicting a massive strike” and repair crews were working to restore power.
“Exactly three years ago – to the day – on 10 October, our power system experienced one of the first massive attacks. Today, Russia continues to use cold and darkness as a tool of terror,” she said.
Ukrainian officials said they were forced to roll out emergency power outages in Kyiv and the capital region, as well as in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Zaporizhzhia regions.
On Thursday, Zelensky told reporters that Russia was intentionally trying to demolish the country’s energy grid, with attacks already disrupting gas facilities.
He said energy workers and authorities were bracing for further attacks.
Also on Friday, Zelensky told the BBC he would urge UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to join the PURL programme, under which Nato countries buy weapons from the US to give to Ukraine.
While praising the UK’s strong support for Kyiv – one of the largest in Europe – he said it should send a clear signal it will take part in the system, as well as imposing more sanctions on Russia.
Downing Street later said Sir Keir and Zelensky had spoken, and agreed more sanctions on Russia “in the coming days and weeks” would put further “pressure” on Moscow.
