A large-scale Russian aerial attack has left the Ukrainian parliament and half of Kyiv’s residential buildings without heating or power, as temperatures across the country continue to hover around -10°C. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that the cost of repelling Monday night’s attack has set Ukraine back around €80m (£69m) in air defence missile expenditure alone.
The strikes, which involved drones, ballistic and cruise missiles, targeted several locations across Ukraine, including Kyiv, Dnipro in the centre, and Odesa in the south. While Zelenskyy said a “significant number” of targets had been intercepted, the damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure has been severe.
More than 5,600 residential buildings in Kyiv, each with dozens of flats, woke up on Tuesday morning to no heating. A large part of the capital also has no water, with Mayor Vitalii Klitschko stating that almost 80% of those buildings had just had their heating restored following a large-scale attack on 9 January, which had knocked out power for much of the city.
“I have no electricity and no water,” Oleksandr Palii, a 29-year-old veteran, told the BBC. “I didn’t sleep until 3am because of the strikes either – there were explosions all night.”
The Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is also without basic services of electricity, water and heating, according to Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, who called on other parliaments not to remain silent.
Zelenskyy had been due to travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, but said he had decided to stay in Kyiv, unless documents on security guarantees with the United States and a prosperity plan were ready to be signed.
As the power cuts continue, Kyiv residents are finding innovative solutions to carry on living. Many now use portable stoves to cook, and entire buildings chip in to buy generators. However, much depends on individual financial capacities, with those less well-off struggling more.
“I think people who are less well-off are coping much worse,” says Olha Zasiadvovk, a parent who has bought lamps and thermal containers for her child’s kindergarten “so that when the kitchen has no electricity they can cook all the meals at once and store them.”
Zelenskyy has emphasised the need for more missile and air defence systems, as Russia continues to use “far more” ballistic missiles in its attacks, with Moscow’s capacity to produce them remaining undiminished. The Ukrainian president has also hinted at concerns that growing tensions between the US and Europe could be detrimental to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, as Kyiv’s European partners are currently buying missiles from the US on its behalf.
“When it comes to [protection from] ballistic missiles, for now the key is in the hands of the United States of America,” Zelenskyy stressed. “It is very important that deliveries are timely, that production works, and that partners help us purchase the necessary missiles.”
