Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, its second largest city of Kharkiv and other centres early today, officials said, triggering fires and dealing new blows to energy infrastructure.
The strikes injured four people and came on the eve of the next planned trilateral talks on resolving the war in the United Arab Emirates.
In Kyiv, as night time temperatures dipped close to -20C, witnesses reported loud explosions after midnight, saying both missiles and drones were being deployed.
The strikes caused damage in five districts, hitting three apartment blocks and a building housing a pre-school, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Flames consumed an apartment on the upper floors of a Kyiv apartment block in videos posted on social media. An air raid alert stayed in effect for more than five hours.
Emergency workers at an apartment building in Kyiv that was damaged in the Russian attack
A series of massive attacks on the capital since New Year’s Day have knocked out power and heating to hundreds of apartment blocks and emergency crews were still trying to restore heating systems.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attacks targeted energy infrastructure and called for tough decisions to keep heating systems from freezing. Coolant needed to be drained from 820 apartment buildings supplied by a single thermal plant.
“The goal is obvious: to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat in severe cold,” Mr Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Public broadcaster Suspilne also said Russian strikes had knocked out power in two towns in the Kharkiv region, Izium and Balakliia, and struck two apartment buildings in the northern city of Sumy.
Residents take shelter at Kyiv metro station as officials say city under missile attack
The attacks also coincided with talk of a moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure adopted by both Russia and Ukraine at the request of US President Donald Trump.
Russia said the ceasefire ended on Sunday, while Ukraine said it was to continue for a week from 30 January.
Yesterday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had not targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure with missile or drone strikes in the previous 24 hours, but steady Russian shelling hit energy facilities near the front line.
Ukraine agrees to multi-tiered ceasefire enforcement plan, FT reports
Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed with Western partners that any persistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a co-ordinated military response from Europe and the US, the Financial Times reported today, citing people briefed on the discussions.
The plan was discussed on several occasions in December and January between Ukrainian, European and American officials and would involve a multi-tiered response to any breaches of an agreed armistice by Russia, the report said.
Envoys from Kyiv, Moscow and Washington will meet in Abu Dhabi tomorrow and Thursday for talks aimed at ending the war, FT said.
As per the proposal, any Russian breach of a ceasefire would prompt a response within 24 hours, starting with a diplomatic warning and, if necessary, action by the Ukrainian army to halt the infraction, the newspaper said.
If hostilities continued beyond that, the proposal would move to a second phase of intervention using forces from the so-called coalition of the willing, which includes many EU members and the UK, Norway, Iceland and Turkey, the report said.
The report added that in the case of an expanded attack, a coordinated response by a Western-backed force, incorporating the US military would be triggered 72 hours after the initial breach.