Russia resumes night strikes on major Ukrainian cities, ending brief reprieve agreed between Putin and Trump

By Victoria Butenko, Svitlana Vlasova and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN

Kyiv (CNN) — Russia launched its biggest missile and drone attack on Ukraine so far this year on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian authorities, cutting heat to tens of thousands of people and ending a brief reprieve agreed to by Moscow and Washington as Ukrainians grapple with plummeting winter temperatures.

CNN staff in the capital Kyiv reported hearing several strong explosions in the city and authorities in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Sumy and Odesa reported Russian strikes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week agreed to pause attacking major Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure until Sunday, following a “personal request” from US President Donald Trump, according to the Kremlin.

The pause also came following trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi, the first such talks since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s attack was focused on energy facilities across at least six regions and involved 70 missiles and 450 attack drones, which according to a CNN tally, is the largest attack of the year so far.

“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelensky said Tuesday.

“The Russian army exploited the US proposal to briefly halt strikes not to support diplomacy, but to stockpile missiles and wait until the coldest days of the year, when temperatures across large parts of Ukraine drop below -20°C (-4°F),” Zelensky later added in a social media post.

Almost 1,200 high-rise buildings across two districts in the capital Kyiv were left without heat due to the strikes, according to mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.

Several multi-storey residential buildings and a kindergarten had been damaged and six people were injured, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv military administration.

One resident of a building in Kyiv that was damaged overnight told CNN that she felt Russia’s attacks on residential infrastructure were “all being done on purpose to make people kind of give up.”

“I couldn’t imagine that in such cold weather they could hit residential buildings,” said Tetyana, who gave her first name only.

Video posted by the State Emergency Service shows flames billowing out of a high-rise residential block and response teams working through the night in freezing conditions.

In southern Ukraine’s Odesa, more than 50,000 people were left without power, the regional military administration said. The country’s second largest city Kharkiv was attacked by Russian missiles and drones that targeted the city’s energy infrastructure, causing damage that will leave at least 820 high-rise buildings without heat supply, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. And Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine, was attacked by ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

“The goal is obvious: to cause maximum damage and leave the city without heat in severe frost,” Terekhov said.

Kyiv residents spent 7 hours under an air raid alert, and the attack came as Ukrainians contend with some of the coldest temperatures this winter. On early Tuesday morning local time, the temperature in Kyiv was -20 Celsius ( – 4 Fahrenheit) and in Kharkiv -25 C (-13 F).

Residents could be seen taking shelter at the Kyiv metro bundled up in thick coats and hats, and huddled under sleeping bags and blankets.

This is the first time that strikes have been reported on energy facilities and major cities since last Thursday, according to Ukrainian authorities, though Russia continued to strike logistics routes and transport infrastructure during that time, with deadly results.

“This is not a side effect of war. It is Russian strategy. Winter temperatures (being) used as a weapon. Heat and electricity as targets,” EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, wrote in a statement, alongside a photo of herself sheltering overnight in her bathroom. “Every night, I think of the millions of people across the country shivering in their homes.”

‘Survival mode’

Before the Abu Dhabi talks, Russia had stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving swaths of the country facing power shortages and outages in the depths of winter.

The Kremlin has confirmed that the next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States aimed at ending the war will take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

Ukraine’s biggest private energy company DTEK said the attack early Tuesday hit thermal power plants, damaging critical energy infrastructure and equipment “at a time when heat and electricity are essential.”

The company is in “survival mode,” its CEO earlier told CNN, with the next few weeks critical as the country grapples with plummeting temperature and the “worst condition of our energy system in modern history.”

DTEK currently operates five thermal power plants in Ukraine, of which two are currently offline and the other three are functioning at low capacity, Maxim Timchenko told CNN Monday in an interview from Dnipro.

He said the company was working to repair the damage from repeated Russian attacks, but it’s often not possible in freezing weather conditions.

His biggest hope right now is that the energy ceasefire announced last week, which he says brought a five-day reprieve in attacks on DTEK’s thermal power plants, is extended in talks in Abu Dhabi this week.

DTEK said Sunday that Moscow had launched a “large-scale attack” on its coal mines in the region, striking a bus carrying miners who had just finished their shift killing at least 12.

CNN’s Helen Regan and Lauren Kent contributed reporting

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