At least 600,000 people across Ukraine woke up without electricity on Wednesday after Russia launched one of its heaviest missile-and-drone barrages in weeks, overnight strikes that President Volodymyr Zelensky said hit "critical" energy infrastructure in the capital region and the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The attack came just three days after President Donald Trump declared an "energy ceasefire" between Moscow and Kyiv that he said both sides had agreed to honor.
Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 39 ballistic and cruise missiles and 128 drones overnight; air defenses managed to shoot down only four of the missiles and 115 of the drones, according to the BBC. Ukraine's state emergency service, DSNS, said at least three people were killed and 21 injured in Kyiv alone. Russia's defense ministry described its own overnight operation as "massive," saying it had targeted communications and energy facilities in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions that it claimed were being used by Ukraine's military. Moscow also said it shot down 902 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian territory, including the capital Moscow and the annexed Crimean peninsula.
A Truce Undercut Within Days
The scale of the strikes raised immediate questions about the status of the energy truce Trump announced on social media on Sunday.
Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!
Donald Trump, U.S. President, in a social media post, Oct. 11, 2026
Zelensky has said repeatedly that Ukraine is ready to stop striking Russian oil refineries and other energy sites if Moscow does the same. According to the BBC, Wednesday's attack marked at least the sixth Ukrainian energy site hit by Russia since Trump's announcement. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has argued that Ukraine does not deserve the "respite" a genuine ceasefire would bring, claiming that any truce would simply let European allies "pump" Kyiv with new weapons to continue fighting.
The overnight bombardment unfolded against the backdrop of a war that is approaching its fifth year. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow's forces currently hold roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Strikes on Ukraine's power grid have become a recurring feature of the conflict, particularly as colder weather sets in, with Russia accused in previous winters of deliberately targeting heating and electricity systems to pressure the civilian population.
Diplomatic Fallout
The attack landed as Zelensky prepared to travel to London, where he is due to meet British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in Downing Street. Burnham has called on Kyiv's partners to increase their support following recent public criticism of Zelensky from Trump, and according to live Guardian coverage of the strikes, Zelensky accused Moscow of "disrespecting" the United States by hitting energy infrastructure so soon after Washington's ceasefire announcement — a pointed attempt to keep pressure on the White House rather than Kyiv over the truce's collapse.
Neither Washington nor Moscow has set out a clear path back to the energy truce Trump claimed to have brokered. For now, Ukrainian repair crews are racing to restore power to the hundreds of thousands of households left in the dark, while officials in Kyiv warn that further Russian strikes on the grid are likely as winter approaches. The diplomatic question of whether Trump's declared ceasefire can be salvaged — or whether it was effectively dead on arrival — is expected to dominate Zelensky's talks in London and any renewed contact between Washington and Moscow in the coming days.
