Overnight Russia strikes hit Ukraine power plant, leaving residents in freezing cold

Russian drone attacks have hit a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine overnight, affecting 46,000 consumers without heating as temperatures fall below freezing, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reported on Sunday.  “This was intentionally carried out to deprive people of heat in freezing temperatures and cause a humanitarian disaster,” Shmyhal stated on the Telegram messaging platform.

Russia launched an assault on Ukraine using 143 drones during the night, but the Ukrainian military reported that it downed 95 of them, while 46 failed to hit their targets, probably due to electromagnetic countermeasures that interfere with drone operations.

Ukrainian officials reported that at least one person was hurt in the overnight assaults, which also caused damage to homes in the Kyiv area. On Sunday night, temperatures in Mykolaiv are anticipated to drop to minus 7 degrees Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit).

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated his call for Western allies to provide Ukraine with additional air defenses, as Russia currently occupies 20% of Ukrainian land and is gradually making progress in the east as the full-scale invasion approaches its third year.

He referenced information indicating that in the last week, Russia had deployed around 1,220 aerial bombs, over 850 drones, and more than 40 missiles targeting government-held regions of Ukraine.

Both parties refute allegations of targeting civilians in the conflict that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. This week, U.S. President Donald Trump surprised European allies and Ukraine by contacting Putin without prior consultation with them or Kyiv and announcing an immediate commencement of peace discussions. Trump’s Ukraine envoy later stated that Europe would be excluded from the discussions regarding peace talks for Ukraine, following Washington’s distribution of a questionnaire to European capitals inquiring about their potential contributions to security assurances for Kyiv.