Russia launched ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, early Tuesday, killing at least 12 people elsewhere in the country, just days after Moscow agreed to a temporary pause on strikes against major cities and energy infrastructure amid Ukraine’s deepening winter crisis.
CNN journalists in Kyiv said they heard several loud explosions as air defenses responded to the attack.
The strikes came despite a pledge by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to halt attacks on major Ukrainian cities and infrastructure until Sunday, a move the Kremlin said followed a “personal request” from United States President, Donald Trump.
That pause was announced after trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States in Abu Dhabi, the first such negotiations since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
According to Ukrainian officials, multiple multi-storey residential buildings and a kindergarten were damaged in Kyiv.
“In the freezing cold, Russians decided to launch another massive strike on Kyiv,” Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv military administration, wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine’s Air Force said the eastern city of Dnipro was also targeted with ballistic missiles, while Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, came under attack from Russian missiles and drones, according to mayor Ihor Terekhov.
Although Ukrainian authorities say there have been no confirmed strikes on energy facilities or major cities since last Thursday, Russia has continued to hit logistics routes and transport infrastructure, causing deadly consequences.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said Russia carried out a “large-scale attack” on its coal mines, striking a bus transporting miners at the end of their shift and killing at least 12 people.
The Kremlin has confirmed that another round of trilateral talks aimed at ending the war will hold in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday.
‘Survival mode’
Ahead of the talks, Russia had intensified attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, leaving large parts of the country without reliable electricity in the depths of winter.
Early Tuesday, temperatures in Kyiv plunged to about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit).
Ukraine’s biggest private energy company is in “survival mode,” its CEO told CNN, warning that the coming weeks are critical as the country faces plunging temperatures and what he described as the “worst condition of our energy system in modern history.”
DTEK operates five thermal power plants across Ukraine, but two are currently offline, while the remaining three are running at reduced capacity, CEO Maxim Timchenko said in an interview with CNN from Dnipro on Monday.
He said repeated Russian strikes have caused extensive damage that is difficult to repair in extreme cold conditions.
Timchenko added that his main hope is that the energy ceasefire announced last week, which provided a five-day break from attacks on DTEK’s thermal power plants, will be extended during the Abu Dhabi talks.
