Russia launches major attack on Ukraine's energy grid as winter looms

Russia has unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine's energy grid, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while visiting the eastern front on Wednesday, said seven people, including a child, were killed in the attacks.

It 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.

Ukraine's state power grid operator Ukrenergo said it had imposed its first emergency power cuts since spring as a result of the attack in Kyiv and three surrounding regions.

Kyiv authorities said the strikes damaged a key power plant and other energy facilities around the capital.

Russian attacks last winter, which brought record-low temperatures, ravaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to adapt to dire circumstances.

Some of the capital's tram and trolleybus services ground to a halt due to the outages on Wednesday, local time, as people headed home from work.

"Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure," Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on X after the attacks overnight.

"Since summer, there's barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn't happened since the end of last heating season."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said energy infrastructure 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.

A child was among the seven dead across Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said, with critical infrastructure coming under attack in five regions. Other damage was reported in another five regions, he added.

Russia said its forces had struck power plants in the Kyiv region, an industrial complex in Odesa region, and port infrastructure in Ismail in the southwest.

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 air-raid alert.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described Wednesday's attack by Russia as a "deliberate" distraction from its grinding battlefield offensive in eastern Ukraine, which has slowed since last year.

Ukrainian state weather forecasters say they expect freezing temperatures at night in Kyiv in the coming days.