Russians Freeze Mykolaiv With Mid-Winter Attack

Russia’s overnight attack targeted the Mykolaiv Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP), leaving 100,000 residents without heating while temperatures plunged well below zero.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack was proof Russia did not want peace, in a statement that came after he warned Western leaders not to trust Moscow and as Europe braces for a summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. 

“Today, more than a 100,000 people in Mykolaiv were left without heating as a result of a Russian Shahed attack on the city’s critical infrastructure,” Zelensky said on social media.

“This has nothing to do with the fighting and the situation at the frontline,” he said, adding: “This is not what those who really want to restore peace and prepare for negotiations do.”

“Last night Russian terrorists targeted the critical infrastructure of Mykolaiv. Enemy UAVs damaged the city’s thermal power plant. This was done deliberately to leave people without heat in sub-zero temperatures and create a humanitarian catastrophe,” prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram.

Daytime temperatures are already sub-zero: it’s -3°C in Mykolaiv, but are expected to drop to -10°C overnight.

Shmyhal said all relevant services are working to reverse the damage caused by the attack and are doing everything possible to restore the heat supply to homes, schools, and hospitals as soon as possible.

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Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that workers from Mykolaiv CHP and Mykolaivoblteploenergo are working to restore alternative heating for residential buildings.

Early Sunday, Russia launched 143 drones and 2 missiles at Ukraine, with air defenses downing 95 UAVs, while explosions and fires hit Brovary and Boryspil in the Kyiv region.

Air defense systems were active in the regions of Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv.