Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of violating a temporary truce brokered by Donald Trump to halt attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during extreme winter conditions, after Moscow launched a large-scale assault on Kyiv as temperatures plunged well below freezing.
Ukraine’s president said Russia carried out a “deliberate” overnight strike on Tuesday involving a record 71 ballistic missiles and about 450 drones, targeting power and heating facilities as temperatures in the capital fell to -20C. More than 1,000 residential buildings in Kyiv were left without heating.
Zelenskyy said the attack breached an agreement Trump had publicly described last week as a personal request to Vladimir Putin to pause strikes on Kyiv and other cities during the cold snap. “He agreed to do that. And I have to tell you it was very nice,” Trump said at the time.
While the Kremlin later said the truce would last only until Sunday, Ukrainian officials said they understood the pause to extend until Friday. Zelenskyy accused Russia of exploiting the lull to stockpile weapons before resuming attacks.
“Either Russia believes there are four incomplete days in a week instead of seven, or they are simply betting on war and waiting for the coldest days of winter,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the strike clearly violated discussions with the US and should carry consequences.
Trump told reporters at the White House that the agreement ran “Sunday to Sunday” and said Putin had kept his word until it expired. Asked whether he was disappointed by the renewed attacks, Trump replied: “I want him to end the war.”
The strikes came on the eve of renewed talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, after a previous round failed to produce a breakthrough.
Visiting Kyiv on Tuesday, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte accused Moscow of attempting to “create chaos for innocent civilians” and said Zelenskyy was ready to engage constructively in negotiations. He described the overnight attack as “a really bad signal” and questioned whether Russia was serious about diplomacy.
Rutte praised Trump’s role in pushing for a settlement and reaffirmed Nato’s long-term support for Ukraine. “Your security is our security. Your peace is our peace,” he said.
Residents of Kyiv reported loud explosions beginning around 1am, with damage across five districts and at least six people injured. Air raid alerts lasted more than five hours. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a drone strike killed two teenagers and wounded at least nine others, officials said.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said, urging western allies to accelerate deliveries of air defence missiles to protect civilians and critical infrastructure.
Ukraine’s energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said facilities supplying heat and hot water had been hit, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without heating in temperatures as low as -25C.
Kyiv resident Natalia Hlobenko, 35, said she shielded her 11-year-old son as an explosion shattered windows in their apartment. “Where is this ceasefire?” she asked, speaking from her darkened home.
Ukraine also said the attack damaged the Motherland monument, a towering second world war memorial overlooking Kyiv and the frozen Dnipro River. The culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, called the strike “symbolic and cynical”, accusing Russia of repeating 20th-century crimes in the present day.
The Abu Dhabi talks come amid reports that Ukraine and its allies have developed a multi-tier enforcement plan for any future ceasefire. According to the Financial Times, a violation would trigger a graduated response, beginning with diplomatic warnings and potentially escalating to coordinated military action if hostilities persisted.
Tuesday’s attacks extended across the country. In Kyiv, 1,170 buildings lost power. In Kharkiv, energy infrastructure was damaged, leaving tens of thousands of homes without heat as water was drained from radiator systems to prevent freezing.
“The goal is obvious: to leave the city without heat in severe cold,” the Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said. The public broadcaster Suspilne reported power outages in towns across the region and damage to apartment buildings in Sumy.
Russian state media figures openly celebrated the damage to Ukraine’s energy system, with one prominent presenter claiming the strikes were driving the country “into the stone age”.