Russian strikes on energy grid cause Kyiv blackouts and water shortages

Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy grid overnight caused blackouts and water shortages in Kyiv, according to reports on Saturday. Heating and water systems in the capital were also disrupted.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 36 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region, and four were shot down. He said technical assessments of the sites hit by ballistic missiles are continuing.

Zelenskyy said preliminary findings show that at one of the key energy facilities damaged, Russian forces used KN-23 missiles made in and supplied by North Korea. Ukraine's defence ministry said in April this year that the KN-23 had been used in earlier attacks on Ukraine. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Missile Threat site, it is a short-range ballistic missile with a top range of around 690 km.

Local authorities and Ukraine's State Emergency Service said the strikes on the Kyiv region injured at least six people, including a child, and damaged a bridge and energy facilities. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Pivnichnyi Bridge was hit and that energy infrastructure in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions was damaged. He said: "The situation regarding the capital’s energy supply is extremely difficult. Consequently, there are disruptions to the city’s heating and water supply systems."

Zelenskyy said the strikes targeted a substation connecting the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear plants to Kyiv, as well as substations in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions. He said a kindergarten was partially destroyed.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said: "Moscow is deliberately seeking to leave millions of Ukrainians without electricity, heating, and water as winter approaches."

Zelenskyy urged allies to speed up deliveries of interceptor missiles. He said the strikes were likely part of a Kremlin effort to increase pressure on Ukraine's negotiating position ahead of planned trilateral talks between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington in Abu Dhabi.

North Korea is believed to have sent more than 16,000 troops to support Russian forces since October 2024, as well as providing munitions, Euronews reported. Putin and Kim Jong-un signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in June 2024.