Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting gas infrastructure and other energy facilities in western regions in the latest strike on the country’s hobbled power system as it approaches mid-winter.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Russian forces launched more than 40 missiles during the morning attack and used more than 70 drones overnight. Ukrainian air defences shot down at least 30 missiles, he said.
“Another massive Russian attack. It’s the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on X.
“Among their objectives were gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people.”
The capital Kyiv also came under attack, with hundreds of residents taking shelter in underground metro stations across the city, sleeping on yoga mats and sitting on folded chairs with their pets.
The governor of Ukraine’s western Lviv region said two energy facilities┬аin the Drohobych and Stryi districts┬аwere damaged. In neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk, the governor said air defences were fending off Russian attacks on facilities.
Both said no injuries had been reported.
Ukraine calls on allies for air defence help
Ukrainians use natural gas mainly for heating homes and cooking. The country uses gas stored over the summer months to use in winter, when daily production does not cover consumption.
Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities are located in the western part of the country, including in the Stryi area. Their role has grown since Kyiv refused to extend a gas transit agreement with Russia.
Russia has stepped up its bombardments of Ukraine’s power sector and other energy infrastructure since March 2024, knocking out half of the available generating capacity and forcing long, rolling blackouts across the country.
Ukrainian cities, businesses┬аand residents rushed to install new generating capacities, including solar panels, batteries, generators┬аand other equipment to increase their energy independence and survive the critical cold months.
Zelenskyy, visiting neighbouring Poland on Wednesday, reiterated his pleas to Kyiv’s Western allies to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence.
“We have also discussed licences for the production of air defence systems and missiles for them, which could serve as one of the effective security guarantees for Ukraine. This is both realistic and necessary to implement.”
Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 25 prisoners of war after negotiations mediated by the United Arab Emirates, Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Trump advisers don’t expect quick end to war
The last days of Joe Biden’s administration have been marked by a flurry of activity on the Ukraine file. The U.S. last week announced another $500 million US in military aid, including weapons and air defence systems.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from U.S. stockpiles.
Washington had previously committed more than $63.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine, including about $2.5 billion in security assistance for the war-torn country. With BidenтАЩs tenure ending in just a few weeks, the 82-year-old is using his final days in office to boost aid to Kyiv before president-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Advisers to president-elect Donald Trump now concede that the Ukraine war will take months or even longer to resolve, a sharp reality check on his biggest foreign policy promise тАФ to strike a peace deal on his first day in the White House.
Two Trump associates, who have discussed the war in Ukraine with the president-elect, told Reuters they were looking at a timeline of months to resolve the conflict, describing the Day 1 promises as a combination of campaign bluster and a lack of appreciation of the intractability of the conflict and the time it takes to staff up a new administration.
Russia has also sent mixed signals regarding a possible peace deal, welcoming direct talks with Trump, while dismissing some of the ideas put forth by his advisers as unworkable.
Russia has made significant battlefield gains in recent months. While those gains have come at a huge cost in terms of men and materiel, many analysts argue President Vladimir Putin has an incentive to slow-walk a deal while he tries to gain control of more Ukrainian territory.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council think-tank in Washington, pointed to comments earlier this month by Vasily Nebenzya,┬аRussia’s ambassador to the United Nations, who said that the peace plans put forward by Trump’s advisers were “nothing of interest.”┬а
The U.S. in the past week also unveiled its broadest package of sanctions so far targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenues.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Tuesday that the European Commission intends to propose a ban on imports of Russian primary aluminum in its 16th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.
