Over the past week, Russian forces launched more than 1,700 attack drones, over 1,380 guided aerial bombs and 69 missiles of various types at Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday, January 25. According to the Ukrainian president, Russia’s primary targets were energy facilities, critical infrastructure and residential buildings.
“Each of Russia’s mass strikes can be devastating. That’s why we need air-defense missiles every day, and we continue working with the United States and Europe to strengthen our sky shield,” he said.
Zelensky added that during his visit to Vilnius he will coordinate positions with regional partners Lithuania and Poland. “We are working with every leader to strengthen Ukraine. Everyone should clearly understand the threat coming from Russia, and our nations understand this best,” he said.
In the overnight hours of January 25, Ukraine came under another barrage from Russia. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russian troops launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and 102 attack drones across multiple regions. According to the Air Force, 87 drones were shot down, but 15 struck targets in ten different locations.
A day earlier, Russian forces carried out a massive strike on Ukraine. The large-scale attack — in which Russia used more than 370 attack drones and 21 missiles of various types — coincided with January 23–24 talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine and Russia, mediated by the United States, on a possible end to the war.
Kyiv was the main target of the January 24 assault, with Russia again hitting critical infrastructure. As a result, about 6,000 residential buildings in the capital were left without heat. Most of those buildings had already been reconnected or had reconnection attempts after the January 9 and January 20 strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Following a series of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, the situation in Kyiv remains difficult. Although most multi-unit buildings have been reconnected to the centralized heating network, 1,676 of them are still without heat, Klitschko said.
Russia spent January hammering Ukraine’s energy system amid freezing weather
In January alone, Russia launched at least three mass attacks on Ukraine, causing widespread disruptions to heating, electricity and water supplies in residential buildings across cities nationwide.
After the first, on January 9, more than half of Kyiv’s apartment buildings - over 6,000 - were without heat. Amid the energy collapse, Klitschko urged residents to leave for places “with alternative sources of power and heat.”
Overnight January 20, Russia again targeted energy infrastructure in Kyiv. Klitschko said the city had not yet restored heat to all buildings left without it after the January 9 attack. The impact of the new strike was comparable - 5,635 apartment buildings were left without heat. The situation is compounded by weather conditions: for most of January, Kyiv has faced subzero temperatures, dropping to minus 17 degrees Celsius.
During its full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledges striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure but claims the goal is to disrupt the country’s military-industrial complex. The Kremlin has also admitted that Russia targets Ukraine’s energy sector in winter: presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said the lack of heat for Ukrainian civilians is a “consequence” of Kyiv’s alleged refusal to enter talks.
