Russia Opens Its Winter Campaign Against Ukraine's Power Grid
At least seven people were killed, one of them a child, in the largest attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the spring. Nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles were launched, of which five missiles and 155 drones were brought down, and the air-raid alert ran for more than twelve hours. Critical infrastructure was damaged in five regions with further damage in five more. Kyiv woke under thick, acrid smoke.
Russia has gone after the grid every winter of this war, but the significance tonight is calendrical: Ukrainian ministers are describing this as the opening of the 2026-27 campaign, and the weather service forecasts the first overnight frosts from Thursday. The prime minister Serhii Koretskyi said an attack of this scale “has occurred for the first time since the end of the last heating season”, and that “since the summer, there has effectively not been a single day without enemy attacks on our energy infrastructure”. Moscow named the Trypilska plant, the largest supplier of electricity to the capital, among its targets, and the operator confirmed damage. The method has evolved — jet-powered drones by day to exhaust interceptors, ballistic missiles by night to beat them — with 3,177 jet drones launched in September against 2,850 in August. The foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Moscow was “trying to turn cold, darkness, and disruption into weapons”. A drone crossed into Moldova and exploded near a village in the east, and Poland and Romania both scrambled jets. Watch whether air-defence pledges turn into deliveries before the frosts arrive.