By Anietie anii-bassey
Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks of the winter overnight, firing roughly 450 long-range drones and about 70 missiles at targets across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, as NATO’s secretary-general arrived in Kyiv and U.S.-brokered negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv were set to begin in the United Arab Emirates.
The barrage struck at least five Ukrainian regions and included a record 32 ballistic missiles, Zelenskyy said, with Russia focusing heavily on energy infrastructure in an apparent effort to plunge civilians into darkness and cold during one of the harshest winters in years.
Ukraine’s largest private power producer, DTEK, described the assault as the most severe strike on the electricity network so far this year. Officials said at least 10 people were wounded.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said, noting that temperatures in Kyiv dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius overnight and remained near minus 16 C on Tuesday morning.
The attack came just hours before NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte arrived in the capital in a show of alliance support and one day before Russian and Ukrainian delegations were scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi for two days of talks aimed at finding a path toward ending the war that began with Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
Zelenskyy urged Ukraine’s partners to accelerate deliveries of air-defense systems and missiles and to intensify political and economic pressure on the Kremlin, saying only sustained international backing could blunt Russia’s campaign and force serious negotiations.
While recent contacts between Russian and Ukrainian representatives have been described by officials as constructive, the diplomatic process has struggled to overcome major obstacles, including the fate of Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces.
After months of shuttle diplomacy, Washington has yet to secure a decisive breakthrough, and expectations for a comprehensive settlement remain cautious.
During his visit, Rutte addressed Ukraine’s parliament and emphasized that NATO members intend to continue supplying Kyiv even as peace efforts grind forward. He said alliance countries have provided roughly three-quarters of all missiles sent to the front lines since last summer and about 90 percent of the munitions used for Ukraine’s air defenses.
“Be assured that NATO stands with Ukraine and is ready to do so for years to come,” Rutte told lawmakers. “Your security is our security. Your peace is our peace. And it must be lasting.”
European governments, increasingly alarmed by Russia’s military posture, view the outcome of the war as directly tied to their own future safety and have accelerated defense spending while expanding military assistance to Kyiv.
The overnight strikes underscored how fragile any pause in hostilities remains. A senior Russian official said last week that Moscow had agreed to suspend attacks on Kyiv for a week until Feb. 1 after U.S. President Donald Trump personally appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the extreme cold. Despite that claim, Russia’s aerial campaign has continued as temperatures plunged.
Throughout the war, Moscow has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s power grid, aiming at substations, transformers, turbines and generators in what Ukrainian officials describe as an effort to sap civilian morale by leaving homes without heat, light or water. DTEK said its thermal power plants were hit again in the overnight barrage, marking the ninth major assault on its facilities since October.
In Kyiv, the State Emergency Service reported that strikes damaged residential buildings, a kindergarten and a gas station across several districts, injuring five people and sparking fires that crews battled through the night.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 1,170 apartment buildings were left without heating by early morning, reversing recent emergency repairs that had restored warmth to nearly all but 80 buildings in the capital.
Missiles and drones also struck the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southern port region of Odesa, where officials reported injuries and infrastructure damage.
Cultural landmarks were not spared. Ukraine’s culture minister, Tetiana Berezhna, said 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, was damaged in the attack.
“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time: the aggressor state strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the 20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st,” Berezhna said.
As emergency crews worked to restore power and heat and diplomats prepared for talks abroad, Ukrainians braced for further strikes, with Zelenskyy warning that only stronger air defenses and sustained international resolve could shield the country’s cities from what he called Russia’s relentless winter campaign.
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