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Russia carried out a Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system, leaving more than half a million people without heat, water or electricity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that attackthe 13th large-scale attack of 2024 on the country’s power grid, was “deliberate” and not a coincidence. “What could be more inhuman? » he wrote on X.
About 50 of the 70 missiles fired in the attack were intercepted, as well as a “significant” portion of the more than 100 attack drones deployed, he added.
This year, Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the second time, after switching to the Western Gregorian calendar last year. The decision to no longer celebrate Christmas on January 7 according to the Orthodox calendar was taken by kyiv to break with Russian influence.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, told Ukrainian national television that the attack had left more than 500,000 people without heat, water or electricity.
Temperatures across Ukraine are around freezing.
Heating supplies were also cut off in some areas of Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions in the west and south of the country.
Ukraine’s energy network manager, Ukrenergo, urged consumers to limit their consumption by not turning on multiple appliances at once, adding that the system was still recovering from the previous Russian attack on December 13.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said its power plants were damaged and one of its longtime employees was killed.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X that the attack reflected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to “those who were talking about an illusory ‘Christmas ceasefire’.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said last week that Zelensky had rejected his proposal for a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners on the occasion of the Orthodox Christmas of January 7.
Ukraine has denied such a proposal was ever on the table, asking Hungary to “refrain from any manipulation” regarding the war. On Friday, Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, called it a “public relations move” by Orbán.
