In the first two weeks of January 2026, Russia launched nearly 2,000 strike drones, about 1,000 guided aerial bombs, and 70 missiles against Ukraine—including the Oreshnik. Moscow waited until temperatures dropped below -5°C to unleash the most severe attacks yet on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
The goal: to maximize civilian suffering from cold, darkness, and desperation. This is what "cold genocide" looks like in practice.
Kyiv's worst energy crisis of the war
President Zelenskyy declared a national energy emergency. In the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa oblasts, blackouts have lasted several days. In Kyiv, 500,000 families lost electricity. Around 400 high-rise buildings remain without heat. Some 6,000 homes went cold from shelling.
The electricity shortage is so severe that even critical infrastructure cannot be fully powered. Kyiv residents get electricity for a couple of hours a day. People set alarms to cook in the middle of the night. About 17 supermarkets in Kyiv and the surrounding region temporarily closed—they ran out of diesel for their generators. In Irpin and Bucha, queues snake around petrol stations as everyone hunts for fuel.
Since October, Russia has attacked 11 hydroelectric power stations and 45 of Ukraine's largest combined heat and power plants. Not a single Ukrainian power plant has escaped Russian strikes.
Kyiv has never faced a worse energy situation. With temperatures plummeting to -20°C, every strike compounds the damage and slows repairs.
Ukrainians adapt—again
Yet Ukrainians refuse to break. Neighbours share hot water, food, warm clothes. City authorities have deployed heated tents for residents of the hardest-hit buildings. Five mini-CHP plants were installed in Kyiv, two already operational.
"Russia must understand that the cold will not help it win this war," Zelensky said.
The hidden toll: energy workers dying under fire
Ukraine's grid survives because of energy workers repairing damage under bombardment, in freezing temperatures, through nights and weekends. But this comes at a cost.
At least 160 Ukrainian energy workers have been killed and more than 300 wounded since the full-scale invasion began, according to the Associated Press. Russia often deliberately targets facilities under repair.
In the Chernihiv Oblast, Russia has used "double taps"—a second wave of attacks hitting repair crews responding to the first strike. Energy workers Anatoliy Savchenko and Ruslan Deyneha were killed this way. During the 9 January attack on Kyiv, four doctors and a police officer were wounded while helping victims.
Kyiv runs on emergency generators and 20% streetlights after week of Russian strikes
What the West can do—right now
Ukraine convened an emergency UN Security Council meeting. The United States condemned Russia's attacks as "an affront to Trump's peace efforts" and "another dangerous and incomprehensible escalation."
Condemnation is not enough.
Ukraine needs immediate support to restore its energy system: transformers, generators, cogeneration plants, and mobile boiler rooms. The old Soviet equipment being destroyed should be replaced with modern, decentralized installations—solar, wind, battery storage—that don't depend on imported gas and are harder to knock out with a single strike.
Insulating homes, protecting grids, building distributed heating systems: these are not temporary fixes but the foundation of an energy architecture that can survive this war and secure Ukraine's future after it.
Russian bombs keep destroying Ukraine’s Soviet heating. Scotland shows what to build instead
Enforcement, not just sanctions
The international response to Putin's escalation must match his brutality. The UK and US have demonstrated it's possible to crack down on Russia's shadow fleet by intercepting tankers operating outside international law. After four years of sanctions packages and hundreds of designated tankers, enforcement is what matters. Existing sanctions—and new ones—must be strictly enforced to grind Russia's war economy to a halt.
Ukraine has resisted Russian aggression longer than the German-Soviet war lasted. Every restored transformer, every hospital with heat and light, every community with autonomous power is a direct response to Russia's attempt to break the country through cold and darkness.
Supporting Ukraine's energy resilience isn't charity. It's an investment in European security—and the speed of that support will determine how many lives are saved this winter.
Editor's note. The opinions expressed in our Opinion section belong to their authors. Euromaidan Press' editorial team may or may not share them.
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