Russia resumes large-scale strikes on Ukraine in glacial temperatures

Summary

• Russia launched a "massive strike" on Kyiv, damaging energy facilities and cutting off heating to thousands amidst freezing temperatures, ahead of peace talks.
• President Zelenskyy condemned the attack as terrorism, noting Russia's disregard for diplomacy and NATO Chief Rutte stated it signals a lack of seriousness about peace.
• The strikes damaged a WWII monument and hit Kharkiv, causing casualties and widespread disruption, while talks in Abu Dhabi are set to focus on territory.

KYIV - Russia launched the “most powerful” attack so far this year on Ukraine’s battered energy facilities overnight, Kyiv said on Feb 3, leaving hundreds of thousands without heating in frigid temperatures ahead of talks to end the four-year war.

Russia’s strikes hit as temperatures dropped to their lowest since the start of the war in February 2022, killing two teenagers in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and damaging a Soviet-era WWII monument.

The attack came a day before Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were due to meet for a second round of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi.

“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, denouncing the attack.

He said Russia has “once again disregarded the efforts of the American side”.

US President Donald Trump urged Mr Vladimir Putin to “end the war”, adding that he “would like” his Russian counterpart to extend a brief halt in attacks due to the frigid temperatures.

NATO chief Mark Rutte, who visited Kyiv on Feb 3, said “Russian attacks like those last night, do not signal seriousness about peace”.

An air alert blared out across Kyiv during Mr Rutte’s visit.

AFP journalists heard explosions across the capital overnight and residents in hundreds of buildings woke to find their heating cut off as temperatures dipped towards minus 20 deg C.

More than 1,100 residential buildings remained without heat as of late Feb 3, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said.

Some residents gathered around a damaged building, stepping over creaking debris and a thick layer of ice coating the ground.

“Our windows are broken and we have no heating,” Ms Anastasia Grytsenko told AFP. “We don’t know what to do.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed it had launched “a massive strike” against “Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises and energy facilities”.

The Kremlin had last week said it agreed to a US request not to strike Kyiv for seven days, ending Feb 1.

Ukraine had not reported large-scale Russian attacks on the capital last week, while denouncing continued attacks in other parts of the country.

“Several types of ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, were used to strike high-rise buildings and thermal power plants,” Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

“Hundreds of thousands of families, including children, were deliberately left without heat in the harshest winter frosts,” he added.

The Feb 3 strike on Ukraine’s battered energy facilities was “the most powerful” since the start of 2026, the country’s largest private energy provider confirmed.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had attacked with 71 missiles and 450 attack drones.

Six people were wounded in the capital, officials said.

A drone strike on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia also killed two teenagers and wounded at least 11 people, officials said.

‘Symbolic and cynical’

The base of Kyiv’s towering Soviet-era Motherland statue was damaged.

“It is both symbolic and cynical: the aggressor state strikes at a place of remembrance of the struggle against aggression in the 20th century, repeating its crimes in the 21st century,” Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna wrote on social media.

Recent Russian strikes have repeatedly cut power and heating to tens of thousands of homes.

Strikes also hit Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, temporarily cutting heating to some 100,000 homes.

Authorities had to cut heating to more than 800 homes to prevent the wider network from freezing, the regional governor said.

Overnight temperatures plunged to minus 19 deg C in Kyiv and minus 23 deg C in Kharkiv.

US pushes for deal

Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said that Ukrainian shelling had killed three people in the town of Nova Kakhovka.

Kremlin-installed authorities said the shelling hit a municipal building and a fruit shop.

“There are dead: three people, including an employee of the administration,” Mr Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-backed head of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region, said.

Nova Kakhovka fell to Russian forces in the first days of their 2022 invasion.

The United States has sought to craft a settlement between the two sides but the first round of trilateral talks held in Abu Dhabi in January failed to yield a breakthrough.

A second round is due to begin on Feb 4 in the Emirati capital and is expected to focus on the crucial issue of territory.

Russia has demanded that Kyiv withdraw from the Donetsk region
and has repeatedly said it is ready to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force if diplomacy fails. AFP