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Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities early Monday with a horde of self-detonating drones, once again bombing critical infrastructure, but in a sinister tactical shift that seemed destined to deprive Ukrainians not only of warmth, electricity, and water but also sleep.
Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv at 2am, the shrill sound amplified by the emptiness of the capital’s streets during the nightly curfew.
Russia has been bombing Ukrainian cities non-stop with missiles and drones since early October in an attempt to destroy the country’s energy grid and leave citizens without essential services during the cold winter, including a heavy missile barrage on Friday.
But Monday’s strikes are the first time Russia has sent such a large fleet of drones at night, possibly a recognition by Russian commanders that their noisy and slow Iranian drones are much easier to spot and shoot down during the day.
Western backers of Ukraine have rushed to bolster their air defenses in response to repeated Russian missile and drone attacks. But while Ukraine’s military claimed to have destroyed most of the unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, officials said several had hit their targets, causing news and serious damage to the country’s energy systems.
“Throughout the night, enemy drones tried to enter energy facilities across the country,” Ukrenergo said in a statement. “Thanks to the professional work of the Air Defense Forces, the enemy did not completely achieve its objective, but, unfortunately, there are several hits on infrastructure facilities.”
“Currently, the most difficult situation has developed in the Central, Eastern and Dnipro regions,” the company’s statement continued. “Emergency stop times have been introduced in the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv and the city of Kyiv. Priority is given to critical infrastructure. The restoration of supply of energy to domestic consumers may take a long time.”
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Ukrainian Air Force officials said in a statement that the country’s air defense systems shot down 30 of “around 35” Iranian-made Shahed drones, which they said were launched from the “eastern coast of the Sea of Azov”.
“Units of anti-aircraft missile forces, fighter jets and mobile fire groups [were] involved in the destruction of aerial targets,” according to the Air Force statement, published on its Telegram channel.
The Washington Post could not independently confirm the Air Force figures.
However, the scale of the attack overnight confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has no intention of reducing his bombardment of Ukraine’s infrastructure systems, which international experts say has pushed the country into the on the brink of a humanitarian crisis and could unleash a second wave of millions. of Ukrainian refugees to neighboring countries if life in the winter becomes unbearable.
“Russian missiles and Iranian drones are constantly being used to primarily attack our energy sector,” Zelensky said, adding that Friday’s attack alone had left the vast majority of Ukraine without electricity.
“On the night of December 16, 22,408,000 Ukrainians were disconnected from the energy supply,” Zelensky said.
Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on his Telegram channel that Russian forces had attacked his southeastern region with “drones, heavy artillery and Grad rockets” on Monday. In the southern Mykolaiv region, regional council head Hanna Zamazeeva said Ukraine’s air defense forces “shot down 10 Iranian-made Shaheed-136 drones.”
Monday’s attacks came hours before Putin arrived in Minsk on Monday for talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.
The visit is being watched closely for signs of a possible imminent assault to be launched from Belarusian territory, just as Russia launched its assault on Kyiv from there last winter.
Ukrainian authorities have warned that such an attack could take place by the end of January, although US defense officials have said they see no sign of such an assault in the near future.
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Russia has previously targeted Ukraine with drone strikes, most recently in the southern port city of Odessa.
But Monday’s assault was the biggest yet against Kyiv, Deputy Mayor Andriy Kryshchenko said. In previous attacks, the drones had been accompanied by missiles.
“It’s a change in tactics: they’re trying to find the weak points,” Kryshchenko said by phone from the front lines in the east where he is currently serving. “They’re trying to somehow alter the image, they’re trying a new approach.”
It is unclear how long Russia can sustain its airstrikes.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told local media that Ukrainian intelligence indicates that Russian forces are reaching the end of their missile reserves and have the capacity for “two- three, maximum four” major attacks with dozens of missiles, such as Friday’s attack in which more than 70 were fired.
However, Russia still has a sufficient number of S-300 missiles, an older and less accurate weapon, Danilov said.
Danilov told The Washington Post that as a result of its dwindling stockpile, Russia is now asking Iran for more missiles. “If Iran provides them with rockets, that will be a challenge for us, that will be a very big danger,” he said.
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The head of the Kyiv city military administration, Serhiy Popko, said Kyiv had faced “several waves of Iranian drone attacks” in the early hours of the morning. In total, 23 drones entered Kyiv’s airspace, of which 18 were shot down, Popko said, according to the military administration’s Telegram channel.
City officials said a “critical infrastructure object” was damaged.
Ukraine’s emergency services released photos and videos of a fire at what appeared to be an electrical substation. Substations have been the primary target of Russian airstrikes, because knocking them out can cripple power transmission. Emergency services said the fire burned for more than two hours.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on television that the drone attack was “serious enough.” Three people were injured and nine homes were damaged, in addition to the strikes on infrastructure, Kuleba said. Kyiv city officials said two residential areas were hit by falling debris from damaged drones, but no one was injured.
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