A third of Kyiv was left without heating after a massive overnight Russian attack battered the Ukrainian capital, officials said on Saturday, as temperatures hovered around freezing and rescue teams raced to contain damage across the city.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles in what he described as a brutal response to peace efforts.
“Russia’s only response to peace efforts is brutal attacks using hundreds of drones and missiles against Kyiv and other cities and regions,” he wrote on X.
City authorities said more than 2,600 residential buildings, 187 nurseries and 138 schools in Kyiv were left without heating after the assault. In the surrounding Kyiv region, around 320,000 households lost power following the strikes.
The attack began in the early hours of Saturday and continued into daylight, with explosions echoing across the capital as ballistic missiles and drones struck multiple locations.
At least eight people were injured, including a 16-year-old child, according to Kyiv’s City Military Administration chief Tymur Tkachenko.
Emergency services reported fires in several residential buildings, including an 18-storey block in the Dnipro district and a 24-storey building in Darnytsia. Additional fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivskyi districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, strikes damaged both industrial and residential structures, and one person was rescued from under the rubble of a destroyed house in the Vyshhorod area.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched nearly 500 drones and 40 missiles overnight, targeting civilian and energy infrastructure.
“If Russia turns even the Christmas and New Year period into a time of destroyed homes and burned apartments, of ruined power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly strong steps,” he wrote, urging stronger pressure from the US and Europe.
The attack came a day before Zelenskyy is due to meet US President Donald Trump for talks aimed at ending the nearly four-year-old war.
Discussions are expected to include security guarantees and territorial issues concerning the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The impact of the strikes was felt beyond Ukraine’s borders. Airports in Rzeszow and Lublin in southeastern Poland were temporarily shut after Polish and allied fighter jets were scrambled amid the Russian assault.
Poland’s armed forces later said operations had concluded without any violation of its airspace, allowing flights to resume.