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On Christmas Day, Russia launched a devastating attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which left over half a million people without basic services like heating, water, and electricity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized the premeditated nature of this strike, marking it as the 13th major attack on the country’s power grid in 2024. He questioned the inhumanity of such acts in a post on X.
Of the 70 missiles fired during the assault, roughly 50 were intercepted, along with a substantial part of the more than 100 attack drones, according to Zelenskyy.
This year, Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on December 25 for only the second time, following their switch to the Western Gregorian calendar last year. This shift from the Orthodox January 7 celebration was a move by Kyiv to distance Ukraine from Russian influence.
The governor of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, reported on national TV that the assault disrupted heating, water, and electricity for more than half a million consumers. With temperatures hovering around freezing, the situation remains dire in many parts of the country.
The attack also affected heating supplies in areas of Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, located in the west and south, respectively. Ukraine’s energy grid operator, Ukrenergo, has called on people to conserve energy by avoiding the use of multiple appliances simultaneously. They noted that the grid is still in recovery mode from a previous Russian assault on December 13.
Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, reported damage to its power plants and the tragic loss of one of its long-term employees. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, commented on X that the attack highlights Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stance against the idea of a ‘Christmas ceasefire.’
Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed that President Zelenskyy declined his suggestion for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange during the Orthodox Christmas on January 7. However, Ukraine refuted the existence of such a proposal, urging Hungary to avoid misleading narratives about the conflict. On Friday, Heorhii Tykhyi, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed Orbán’s suggestion as mere public relations tactics.
