Russian forces launched a massive overnight drone attack on Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, knocking out heat to more than 700 apartment buildings and cutting electricity to over 45,000 customers as temperatures dropped to –7°C (+19°F), local officials said.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s Defense Council, said strikes hit infrastructure facilities, forcing utilities to switch to generators. He urged residents to stockpile water, warning that pressure would fall as pumping systems move to backup power.
Smaller boiler houses have been switched to generators, Vilkul said, but larger heating facilities cannot be kept running this way.
“The emergency response headquarters is already working. Wish luck to the power engineers, heating specialists and municipal workers – and thank them for their hard work in freezing temperatures,” he said.
With Kryvyi Rih’s population estimated at about 560,000, the outages left roughly 8% of residents without electricity.
The attack followed a wave of strikes across Ukraine a day earlier. On Jan. 13, Russian forces hit 15 critical infrastructure sites nationwide, including thermal power plants and combined heat and power stations, according to Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development Kostiantyn Kovalchuk.
He said the assaults were largely concentrated on Kyiv, where 472 apartment buildings – out of more than 12,000 – remain without heating. Kyiv Post correspondents said temperatures inside their apartments were hovering at around +11°C (52°F).
Large parts of the Kyiv region were also left without electricity. The towns of Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel were almost completely blacked out, with residents also reporting water supply disruptions.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the power situation in the capital as severe. Earlier, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said around 500,000 customers nationwide were without electricity.
Last week, Klitschko urged residents who can do so to temporarily leave the city. Outages have also forced some grocery stores to suspend operations.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy system would not help Moscow win the war. He added that Kyiv’s partners could respond with new aid packages and faster deliveries already agreed with the United States and Europe, stressing that Ukraine urgently needs additional air defense systems and missiles.