At least 4 killed, 24 injured as Russian strikes hit Kyiv, leave thousands of buildings without heat
Damaged residential building following a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 9, 2026. (Olena Zashko / The Kyiv Independent)
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones overnight on Jan. 8-9, killing at least four people and injuring 24 others in Kyiv and knocking out electricity for hundreds of thousands while disrupting heat supplies as temperatures fell.
A paramedic was among those killed as a result of a double-tap strike, and 16 of the 24 wounded were hospitalized, Kyiv officials said. The medic was identified as Serhii Mykolaiovych Smoliak, 56, who worked at the city’s Center for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine.
Health Minister Viktor Liashko said the emergency medical team arrived at the site of a strike on a residential building when Russia launched a second strike, killing Smoliak. Four other medics were injured, and five rescuers were also wounded, Liashko said.
“Last night, a drone hit us. It was a direct strike on our floor… A person died near my building — someone who came to help me. It happened when a drone hit emergency workers,” Ivan Fedorovskyi, 35, a Kyiv resident, told the Kyiv Independent.
Fedorovskyi said he lost his sister in a Russian attack on Kharkiv in 2023.
"Europe has all the resources — money and weapons — to help us end the war. But Europe lacks the political will," he said.
Running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of Ukraine's capital as a result of Russian strikes on critical infrastructure, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. DTEK's press service said 417,000 households were disconnected from electricity.
Klitschko later said nearly half of Kyiv’s apartment buildings — almost 6,000 — were without heat due to damage to critical infrastructure, and that there were also disruptions to the city’s water supply.
"We are doing everything we can to do this as quickly as possible. But the combined attack on Kyiv last night was the most painful for the capital's critical infrastructure facilities," he said.
"I also appeal to the residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so," Klitschko added.
The attack targeted energy facilities and civilian infrastructure “as a significant cold snap set in,” while authorities worked to restore heating and electricity, Zelensky said in a Telegram post on Jan. 9.
He added that Russia launched 242 drones and fired ballistic and cruise missiles overnight, and that a Russian drone damaged the building of Qatar’s Embassy in Kyiv.
Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk said the attack damaged heat-generation and heat-supply facilities in and around Kyiv, including thermal power plants and boiler infrastructure.
He said two thermal power plants in Kyiv Oblast that help supply heat to both the left and right banks of the capital were hit, along with a thermal power plant operated by a private power generation company.
Kolisnyk said drones also struck boilers responsible for heat supply, and that subzero temperatures expected overnight and in the coming days could complicate repairs.
He added that officials were working to restore heat and reroute electricity to critical facilities needed to keep circulation and heating systems running, while reducing heat and water volumes in the network to prevent freezing.
Kolisnyk said the strikes were intended to put pressure on civilians by knocking out basic services.
“The main reason is simple. They are trying to create social instability,” Kolisnyk said.
He added that the energy system remained “manageable,” and that Ukraine was drawing on experience from previous winters while seeking sustained partner support for air defense and replacement equipment.
Residents described sheltering as drones hit the neighborhood.
At the scene, Maryna Polischuk, a 45-year-old businesswoman who lives in a neighboring apartment building, said her family first sheltered in their apartment hallway before moving to an underground parking lot as the attack continued.
Polischuk said a second Shahed drone was “practically inaudible” until it began to descend. “We only heard it when it was descending, when it started to fall,” she said.
“We can't plan our future, so we live day by day,” Polischuk said.
Alyona, 35, who lives in the apartment building that was struck and declined to provide her surname, said her family went to a shelter at a nearby school as soon as the air alert began and waited there until it was lifted.
She said residents supported each other in the shelter, with elderly women reading aloud reports of incoming drones and missiles.
Several neighborhoods in the capital were struck, including the Dniprovskyi and Darnytskyi districts. Much of the reported damage in Kyiv was concentrated on the city’s left bank — particularly in the Darnytskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Desnianskyi districts — though officials also reported damage in the central Pechersk and Shevchenkivskyi districts, according to Klitschko and local authorities.
Authorities said residential buildings in the Pechersk and Desnianskyi districts sustained damage from drones and falling debris, and a fire reportedly broke out in the Shevchenkivsky district.
Explosions were first reported in Kyiv around 11:45 p.m. local time as air defense systems engaged aerial targets, according to local officials. Earlier, the air force had warned of a ballistic missile threat and reported drones heading toward the capital.
Another nationwide missile threat was issued around 2:13 a.m. local time after Ukraine's air force detected Russian fighter jets taking flight.
Additional cruise missile explosions rocked the capital at about 3:00 a.m. local time, a Kyiv Independent journalist on the ground reported as Russia continued its overnight attack.
A residential building in Kyiv's well-known Comfort Town apartment complex reportedly caught fire as a result of the attack, according to local media.
"In the Darnytskyi district, a drone crashed in the courtyard of a residential building. A one-story store nearby and the windows of a nearby nine-story residential building were partially damaged," he said.
In the Dniprovskyi district, fires burned in two residential buildings, Klitschko reported.
Shockwaves damaged the roof of another residential building, and drone debris fell on a children's playground, he added.
"In the Pechersk district, as a result of drone debris falling, the facade of a nine-story residential building was partially destroyed. A non-residential multi-story building was also damaged," Klitschko reported.
In Kyiv's Desnyansky district, the territory of a shopping center and a sanatorium was damaged as a result of the Russian attack, he said.
In the suburb of Brovary, located east of Kyiv, emergency workers saved "a mother, a father, a grandmother, and a five-year-old child" from under rubble, the Interior Ministry reported.
In the morning, city officials also reported disruptions to metro service between the left and right banks of the Dnipro River due to power outages. Trains on the underground section of the red line between Akademmistechko and Arsenalna were delayed, the Kyiv City State Administration said, while service on the aboveground section between the Dnipro and Lisova stations was suspended.
Russia also fired an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile at the western Ukrainian city of Lviv overnight on Jan. 9, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed, calling the attack “retaliation” for an attempted Ukrainian drone strike on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences — a claim Kyiv has denied.
Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the strike targeted critical infrastructure. Ukraine’s military said the missile was launched from the Kapustin Yar missile range in Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast, and that the type of missile would be determined after debris is examined.
Despite ongoing peace talks, Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukraine, frequently targeting energy infrastructure in an effort to plunge entire regions into darkness as Ukrainians endure freezing winter temperatures.
As a result of recent Russian attacks, more than 1 million people in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast remained without water and heating as of the morning of Jan. 8.
