Russia has launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine, hitting critical energy facilities, including a thermal power plant, as temperatures across the country dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia used nearly 300 attack drones, as well as 18 ballistic and seven cruise missiles.
"The situation in the Kyiv region is difficult -- several hundred thousand households are currently without power," said Zelenskyy in a post on X.
Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that it had carried out a "massive strike" on Ukrainian energy facilities, stating they were used by Ukraine's army and military-industrial complex.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha accused Russia of deliberately striking energy infrastructure to deprive civilians of power, water, and heating amid extreme cold temperatures.
"Russia is deliberately trying to inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction of the Ukrainian people," he wrote on X, adding that such action falls under the definition of Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention.
Ukraine's leading private energy provider, DTEK, reported that Russian missiles hit a thermal power plant overnight amid freezing temperatures, marking the eighth major attack on its facilities since October 2025.
State energy provider Ukrenergo said on January 13 that Russia's missile and drone attack had targeted energy facilities in several regions, leaving many consumers without power in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as in Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, and Donetsk regions.
It added that emergency repair and restoration work has begun wherever security conditions allow.
The regional governor reported that a Russian attack on the Kharkiv region killed four people and injured several others.
"The number of people killed in the enemy attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv has reached four," Oleh Syniehubov posted on Telegram.
"With no military purpose whatsoever, Russia lobbed missiles at a postal terminal in Korotych, Kharkiv region, killing four people," Zelenskyy wrote about the deadly attack.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a Russian drone hit a children's medical facility, causing a fire.
The overnight strikes also hit other Ukrainian regions, including the southern city of Odesa.
Regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said residential buildings, a hospital, a school, and a kindergarten were damaged and at least five people were wounded in two waves of attacks.
Moscow has repeatedly claimed it doesn't target Ukraine's civilian infrastructure despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Data shows Russian forces intensified strikes on Ukraine's energy and gas infrastructure at the beginning of fall 2025, disrupting supplies during the heating season.
Meanwhile, Yuri Slyusar, governor of the Rostov region in southern Russia, said Russian air defense systems were trying to repel a Ukrainian air attack on Taganrog.
He later added that, according to updated reports, air defenses shot down seven drones and there were no reported casualties.
The Ukrainian Security Service confirmed the attack, stating that together with the navy unit, it struck a drone manufacturing plant in Taganrog.
