Russia attacks Ukraine with ballistic missiles, targeting Kyiv on freezing night amid energy crisis
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles overnight on Jan. 20, as the country faces freezing temperatures and a deepening energy crisis.
Kyiv is currently enduring its most difficult winter of Russia's full-scale war, brought on by a relentless Russian assault on the city's energy facilities. President Volodymyr Zelensky declared a state of emergency in the energy sector on Jan. 14 due to the heightened attacks.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv at around 2 a.m., Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported. At around the same time, the Air Force warned that Russian ballistic missiles were targeting the capital.
The Air Force soon afterwards issued additional ballistic missile warnings for Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vinnytsia oblasts. The military then said Russia had launched MiG-31 bombers, carriers of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
Earlier in the evening, groups of Russian drones triggered aerial alerts in Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as in several other Ukrainian oblasts.
One person has been injured in the city's Dniprovskyi district, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
The attacks have so far damaged non-residential buildings in the same district, Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymur Tkachenko reported. In another location, vehicles caught fire as a result of the strike.
Power outages and disruptions to water supply have also been reported in eastern Kyiv, Klitschko said.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, explosions have also been reported in Dnipro and Kharkiv Oblast. Attacks are ongoing and the full consequences of Russia's strikes are still being determined.
Earlier on Jan. 19, Zelensky warned that Russia was planning a large-scale attack against Ukraine.
"In the coming days we must remain extremely vigilant. Russia has prepared for a strike — a massive strike — and is waiting for the moment to carry it out," the president said.
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia's attack would target energy infrastructure, including potential strikes on facilities serving Ukraine's nuclear power stations.
