Parts of Kyiv are still without heat as temperatures plunged into the single digits Saturday, following timed Russian strikes that left half of the capital city in darkness.
The shelling that began overnight Thursday was among the heaviest of the war, as Russia pounded Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones.
The attack left more than 6,000 apartment buildings — half of the city’s housing stock — without heat, according to Kyiv’s mayor, who urged residents to flee the frigid capital.
A residential building is damaged after a Russian air strike during a heavy snowstorm in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. AP
“The combined attack on Kyiv last night was the most painful for the capital’s critical infrastructure,” Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram Friday.
“Weather conditions, unfortunately, according to forecasts, will be difficult in the coming days. I appeal to residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so.”
This handout photograph, taken and released by the Ukrainian Security Service on Jan. 9, reportedly shows a fragment of a Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile at an undisclosed location. UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images
By Saturday morning, heat was restored to half the houses that had lost it, the mayor said — only for the state grid operator to order the system shut down by noon after it became overloaded.
With the accumulated damage to the grid from four years of constant war, the utility operator has put the country on rolling power outages, making this winter the coldest and darkest of the brutal conflict yet.
“We hope they will give us heat,” said Galina Turchin, a 71-year-old living on Kyiv’s eastern bank. “If not power, then at least heat.”
But the cold is bringing with it additional challenges. With temperatures expected to drop below zero, it will be difficult to repair heat and power units even in the absence of new strikes, a power engineer told the Kyiv Post.
Emergency services are dealing with the aftermath of Russia’s combined attack on Jan. 9 in Kyiv. Getty Images
Damage caused by a Russian missile strike leaves an apartment balcony destroyed in a multi-storey residential building in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on Jan. 9. ZUMAPRESS.com
“The attack is exactly when a significant cold snap occurs,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “It is against the ordinary life of ordinary people.”
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s troops also launched assaults on Zelensky’s hometown in central Ukraine.
Firefighters extinguish smoldering hotspots amid debris following the Russian missile attack in Kryvyi Rih on Jan. 9. ZUMAPRESS.com
Several neighborhoods in Kryvyi Rih remained without heat and electricity, after the shelling as emergency repair continued into Saturday, local officials said.
Two people were injured in the attack, bringing the total to 16 in recent days in the region.
With Post Wires