BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial assaults of the winter on Ukraine overnight, firing roughly 450 long-range drones and about 70 missiles in a coordinated attack that battered critical infrastructure and left civilians wounded and without heat as temperatures plunged well below freezing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombardment struck at least five regions across the country and deliberately targeted the power grid, continuing Moscow’s strategy of crippling essential services during the harshest months of the year. The attack came just a day before Ukrainian and Russian delegations were scheduled to meet in U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at exploring a possible end to the nearly four-year-old war.
According to Ukrainian officials, at least 10 people were injured in the overnight strikes. In Kyiv, temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) overnight, exacerbating the impact of the damage. By Tuesday morning, the capital remained locked in severe cold, with thermometers hovering around minus 16 Celsius (minus 3 Fahrenheit).
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said, accusing Moscow of deliberately timing its assault to maximize civilian suffering. He renewed his call for Western allies to supply Ukraine with additional air defense systems and to intensify political and economic pressure on the Kremlin to force an end to the invasion launched on Feb. 24, 2022.
The latest barrage unfolded as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday for an official visit, underscoring the alliance’s continued support for Ukraine’s defense. The timing also cast a shadow over the upcoming talks in Abu Dhabi, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, which U.S. officials have described as an attempt to build momentum toward de-escalation.
While recent contacts between Ukrainian and Russian representatives have been characterized by officials as constructive, major obstacles remain. After a year of diplomatic efforts, the Trump administration has yet to secure a breakthrough on core issues, including the fate of Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces. A comprehensive settlement, diplomats acknowledge privately, still appears distant.
The overnight assault also appeared to contradict earlier statements from Moscow. A Kremlin official said last week that Russia had agreed to pause strikes on Kyiv for a week, until Feb. 1, following a personal request from U.S. President Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin due to the extreme cold. Despite that claim, Russian aerial attacks have continued as freezing conditions persist.
Ukrainian authorities say Russia is pursuing a deliberate campaign to erode public morale by plunging civilians into darkness and cold. Energy facilities have been a repeated target, including substations, transformers, turbines and generators. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said the overnight attack damaged its thermal power plants, marking the ninth major strike on its facilities since October.
In Kyiv, the State Emergency Service reported that five people were wounded as missiles and drones struck residential areas, damaging apartment buildings, a kindergarten and a gas station and sparking fires in several districts. The destruction disrupted ongoing repair work that had nearly restored heating across the city. By early morning, 1,170 apartment buildings were again without heat, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, reversing progress made in recent days.
Beyond the capital, strikes were reported in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southern Odesa region, where officials confirmed injuries and damage to civilian infrastructure.
The cultural toll of the attack also drew sharp condemnation. Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna said the strikes damaged the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, located beneath Kyiv’s towering Motherland Monument.
“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time,” Berezhna said, “that the aggressor state strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the 20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st.”
As Ukraine grapples with freezing temperatures, damaged infrastructure and continued aerial threats, the latest assault underscored the stark gap between diplomatic efforts and the realities on the ground, even as negotiators prepare to sit down at the table in Abu Dhabi.
Original article
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