{"id":1947,"date":"2026-09-30T22:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2026-09-30T22:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:04:17","slug":"russia-unleashes-heavy-attack-on-ukrainian-energy-grid-as-winter-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1947","title":{"rendered":"Russia unleashes heavy attack on Ukrainian energy grid as winter looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Russia unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine\u2019s energy grid on Wednesday, \u200bhitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The strikes, \u200cin which Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed, followed days of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness when Ukraine is short of air defences.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure,\u201d Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi \u200bsaid on X after the attacks overnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince summer, there\u2019s barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined \u200bstrike of this scale hasn\u2019t happened since the end of last heating season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian attacks last winter, which brought record-low \u2060temperatures, ravaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to adapt to dire circumstances.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Ukrainian capital in focus<\/h3>\n

Kyiv residents woke on Wednesday to a city shrouded in \u200bthick fog from the smoke of attacks, which authorities said damaged a key power plant and other energy facilities around the capital.<\/p>\n

President Volodymyr Zelensky said energy \u200binfrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding area was the main target of an onslaught that included nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles. The air force said it had downed 5 missiles and 155 drones.<\/p>\n

A child was among the seven dead across Ukraine, Zelensky said, with critical infrastructure coming under attack in five regions. Other damage was reported in another \u200bfive regions, he added.<\/p>\n

Russia said its forces had struck power plants in the Kyiv region, an industrial complex in Odesa region, and port infrastructure in Ismail \u200bin the southwest.<\/p>\n

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris had been found at a Western embassy, but offered no further details. The overnight attack triggered a more than 12-hour \u200cair-raid alert.<\/p>\n

Near-constant \u2060daytime sirens and explosions have become a fixture of daily life in Kyiv, where drone attacks have killed around a dozen people over the past week alone.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Winter approaching<\/h3>\n

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Wednesday\u2019s attack by Russia as a \u201cdeliberate\u201d distraction from its grinding battlefield offensive in eastern Ukraine, which has slowed since last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoscow is increasing the pressure on Ukrainian civilians as winter approaches, trying once again to turn cold, darkness, and disruption of normal life into weapons,\u201d he \u200bsaid on X.<\/p>\n

Russia, which began its full-scale \u200binvasion in February 2022, denies \u2060targeting civilians although it has pounded cities and towns across Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Koretskyi, the prime minister, said he had instructed local authorities to check the readiness of backup power systems at critical facilities and speed up installations.<\/p>\n

Authorities in recent weeks and \u200bmonths have been building protective facilities and aiming to diversify energy generation before Russia\u2019s expected winter campaign.<\/p>\n

However, Ukrainian \u200bhuman rights ombudsman Dmytro \u2060Lubinets said on Wednesday there was a critical shortage of urban shelters, describing the civil-defence system as having \u201ccompletely failed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian state weather forecasters, meanwhile, said they expected freezing temperatures at night in Kyiv in the coming days.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Drone explodes in Moldova<\/h3>\n

In neighbouring Moldova, a drone crossed into its airspace and exploded near the eastern village of \u2060Hirbovet, police \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n

NATO members Romania and Poland both scrambled military jets, the countries said, and flights at \u200bthe Polish airports of Lublin and Rzeszow were temporarily suspended.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has also stepped up attacks on Russia, striking oil refineries and major online retailers to undermine Moscow\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n

One person was killed in \u200bdrone attacks in Russia\u2019s Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine\u2019s energy grid on Wednesday, \u200bhitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months. The strikes, \u200cin which Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed, followed days of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness when Ukraine is short of air defences. \u201cRussia has escalated to massive strikes on energy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}