Overnight Tuesday, February 3, Russia launched another wave of massive, combined strikes on several regions of Ukraine, with explosions reported. Ukraine’s Air Force and officials in Kyiv and Kharkiv announced the attacks on Telegram. During the strikes, temperatures dropped to −20°C in Kyiv and −24°C in Kharkiv.
Russia used a total of 450 drones and more than 60 missiles during the attacks, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin waited for temperatures to plunge before hitting Ukraine’s energy system. “Neither the diplomatic efforts expected this week in Abu Dhabi nor his promises to the United States stopped him from continuing terror against civilians in the harshest winter period,” Sybiha said.
Kyiv officials said damage was reported across five districts - Darnytskyi, Desnianskyi, Dniprovskyi, Pecherskyi and Shevchenkivskyi. “In bitter cold, the Russians decided to launch another massive strike on Kyiv. We’re receiving reports of damage to several multi-story residential buildings and an educational institution in the Dniprovskyi district as a result of the attack,” Kyiv regional military administration head Tymur Tkachenko wrote on social media around 1:30 a.m. local time. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on non-residential buildings in the Darnytskyi district and a fire at a kindergarten building in Dniprovskyi.
A short time later, Tkachenko detailed the aftermath. He said a man was injured in Darnytskyi and treated at the scene. A 25-story and a five-story building were damaged in the same district; in Dniprovskyi, a five-story residential building was damaged, and in two locations fragments of “enemy objects” were found in open areas, he added. In the Pecherskyi district, a gas station building and parked cars were damaged, and in Shevchenkivskyi, preliminarily, a 22-story residential building, he said. Later, officials said a total of 1,170 apartment buildings in Kyiv were left without heat.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city was hit multiple times by Russian ballistic missiles, with two impacts recorded in the Slobidskyi district. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported multiple attacks by strike drones and guided aerial bombs across the region. “Two people were injured in Kharkiv as a result of enemy shelling. A 27-year-old and a 58-year-old man are currently receiving medical care,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that two more people were injured in the city of Derhachi.
“The strikes are targeting energy infrastructure to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat amid severe frost,” Terekhov said. Authorities will have to “make difficult decisions,” including draining water from the heating system in 820 apartment buildings to prevent the network from freezing, he said. “An unprecedented attack on critical infrastructure leaves no other option. Our specialists see no alternative,” he added. According to the mayor, 101 “Points of Invincibility” will operate around the clock in the city, where people can warm up and charge devices. More warming centers will be deployed if needed, he said. Overnight temperatures in Kharkiv fell to −24°C, with daytime highs expected to reach −15°C.
Russia resumed strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, ending the “energy truce” it announced four days earlier. On the night of February 2, Russian forces attacked energy facilities in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy regions, said Ukraine’s First Deputy Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov.
According to the Energy Ministry, repairs at damaged energy facilities are ongoing, but power capacity deficits persist in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. In addition, due to severe weather, more than 160 settlements in the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions were left without electricity.
The deputy minister also reported a targeted attack on energy workers in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russians the day before struck with drones a service bus of an energy company near the Ternivska mine in the Pavlohrad district. Sixteen mine workers were killed and another 14 wounded. On the afternoon of February 2, the same enterprise was hit a second time, damaging administrative buildings, energy company DTEK said.
