On the morning of December 25, Russia launched 70 missiles and more than 100 explosive drones into Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this morning denounced an “inhumane” attack. “Today Putin consciously chose Christmas for his attack. What could be more inhumane?” the Ukrainian president said on his Telegram account. The attack mainly targeted energy sites. “More than 50 missiles” and some of the drones were shot down but certain strikes led to “power cuts in several regions,” added Volodymyr Zelensky. The attack left at least one dead and at least six injured, authorities said.
The DTEK group, the country’s main private energy supplier, said on Wednesday that its thermal power plants had been targeted by this new attack, reporting “serious damage” to their equipment. “This is already the thirteenth massive attack on Ukraine’s energy system this year,” DTEK said in a statement. “Depriving millions of peaceful people celebrating Christmas of light and heat is a depraved and evil act that must be responded to,” DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko told X, calling on kyiv’s allies to provide more means of air defense.
Mass attacks and power outages
Across Ukraine, Russia has struck energy infrastructure, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into darkness and cold, with temperatures currently hovering between 0°C and -2°C. The authorities of Kharkiv, the country’s second city located in the North-East, near the Russian border, reported “at least seven strikes” on this locality, injuring at least six people. The Dnipropetrovsk region (central-east) was also attacked. Explosions notably resounded in the capital, Dnipro, and in Kryvyï Rig, the hometown of President Zelensky.
The Ivano-Frankivsk regional administration announced for its part that part of this territory, located in the west of the country, hundreds of kilometers from the front line, was deprived of power. While in the Poltava region (center), the authorities reported damaged infrastructure. “The enemy is once again massively attacking the energy sector” and the authorities are taking “necessary measures to limit consumption in order to minimize negative consequences for the energy system,” the Ukrainian Energy Minister wrote on Telegram , German Galushchenko.
Wednesday’s attacks come on the day when Ukraine, for the second time in its modern history, celebrates Christmas Day on December 25, as in the Western world, and no longer on January 7 as in the Julian calendar followed by the Russian Orthodox Church. This Christmas trip was made official during the summer of 2023 by a law promulgated by President Volodymyr Zelensky as a sign of defiance towards Russia. On December 13, Russia had already carried out a massive attack on energy infrastructure. Since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has regularly bombed its neighbor’s electricity grid, plunging hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people into darkness and cold, often in winter temperatures.