Power restored to 800,000 in Kyiv after major Russian strikes on energy grid

Power has been restored to more than 800,000 residents in Kyiv a day after major attacks by Russia on the Ukrainian power grid caused blackouts across much of the country.

Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK said on Saturday that “the main work to restore the power supply” had been completed, but that some localised outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Friday’s “massive” Russian attacks.

Russian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and caused blackouts across swathes of Ukraine early on Friday.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Friday said the strikes had targeted energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military.

It did not give details of those facilities, but said Russian forces used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and strike drones against them.

The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.

Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale.

Winter temperatures run from late October through to March, with January and February the coldest months.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Friday that Russia was taking advantage of the world being “almost entirely focused on the prospect of establishing peace in the Middle East”, and called for strengthening Ukraine’s air defence systems and tighter sanctions on Russia.

“Russian assets must be fully used to strengthen our defence and ensure recovery,” he said in the video, posted to X.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement on Friday they were ready to move towards using “in a co-ordinated way, the value of the immobilised Russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s armed forces and thus bring Russia to the negotiation table”.

The statement added they aimed to do this “in close co-operation with the United States”.

Ukraine’s budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total around 130 billion euros.

The European Union has already poured in 174 billion euros since the war started in February 2022.

The biggest pot of ready funds available is through frozen Russian assets, most of which is held in Belgium – around 194 billion euros as of June – and outside the EU in Japan, with around 50 billion dollars, and the US, UK and Canada with lesser amounts.

Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday that its air defences intercepted or jammed 54 of 78 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.