Zelenskyy Condemns Russian Assault, Says Western Allies Failed to Give Timely Warning
Russian air strikes have killed at least nine people and left more than 500,000 without electricity across Ukraine, just days after United States President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire in the more than four-year war.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out a large-scale assault on Ukraine’s communications and energy infrastructure, striking power and heating plants in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as facilities in Kharkiv. Moscow also reported hitting an electricity substation and a data centre allegedly used to collect intelligence on Russian military operations.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to remain in shelters as the bombardment disrupted electricity supplies. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, confirmed emergency power cuts across several districts of the capital.
Ukraine’s emergency services reported that two people were killed when a multistorey building in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district was struck, while another person died in the Holosiivskyi district.
In Dnipropetrovsk, Russian attacks killed two people and wounded six, while another fatality was recorded in Zaporizhzhia. In Lutsk, western Ukraine, three people were killed and at least 12 others injured.
Additional strikes were reported in Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy and Chernihiv, highlighting the widespread impact of the assault.
Al Jazeera correspondent Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said the attack involved a record number of hypersonic missiles, leaving more than half a million people without electricity nationwide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticised Western partners for failing to provide advance warning of the ballistic missile attack, saying the missiles were detected only as they approached Kyiv. He described the failure to alert Ukraine in time as unjust, given Russia’s sustained attacks on critical infrastructure.
Zelenskyy also accused Moscow of breaching the energy ceasefire announced by Trump on Sunday, describing the strikes on energy facilities as deliberate and a clear disregard for the US president’s initiative.
Meanwhile, Sergiy Beskrestnov, a technology adviser to Zelenskyy, said new speed restrictions imposed on mobile Starlink internet terminals disrupted some Ukrainian military operations overnight.
According to Beskrestnov, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, introduced a restriction preventing the terminals from operating at speeds above 160 kilometres per hour without prior warning to Ukraine’s defence forces. He suggested the move could be linked to the prevailing political situation.
Russia also reported Ukrainian drone attacks overnight. Roman Busargin, governor of the Saratov region, said a strike killed one person in the city of Balakovo.
