Illustration of a darkened city skyline with damaged power lines at night, representing the Russian attack on Ukraine energy infrastructure

Russian Attack on Ukraine Energy Leaves 600,000 Without Power

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A Russian attack on Ukraine energy infrastructure on Oct. 14, 2026, left at least 600,000 people without electricity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, three days after President Donald Trump declared an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine. At least nine people were killed across the country, according to a tally of officials’ reports compiled by Al Jazeera, and Kyiv was hit by missiles for the second night in a row.

Scale of the Russian Attack on Ukraine’s Energy System

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 39 ballistic and cruise missiles and 128 drones overnight, and that air defenses shot down four of the missiles and 115 of the drones, the BBC reported. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kyiv reported that a record number of hypersonic missiles was used against the capital.

Russia’s Defense Ministry described the operation as a “massive” strike on communications and energy facilities, Interfax reported. The ministry said its forces hit two power and heating plants in Kyiv, two more plants in the surrounding region, an electricity substation, a heat and power plant in Kharkiv and a thermal facility in the southeast of the Kharkiv region that it said supplied the Ukrainian military. It also said it struck a Kyiv data center that it described as an intelligence site.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to stay in shelters, writing that energy facilities in and around the capital had come under “a massive ballistic missile strike.” DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, imposed emergency power cuts in several districts of the city.

Ukraine’s emergency service said a strike on a multistory building in Kyiv’s Desnianskyi district killed two people and another attack in Holosiivskyi district killed one. Two people were killed and six wounded in the Dnipropetrovsk region and one person died in the Zaporizhzhia region, officials said. In the western city of Lutsk, Volyn regional governor Roman Romaniuk reported three dead and at least 12 injured; the BBC later reported that at least six people were killed in a Russian drone strike on a warehouse there.

The Energy Ceasefire and the Early-Warning Dispute

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. Zelensky called Wednesday’s attack “a targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure – the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President,” adding that “Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect towards the United States.”

Zelensky also said Ukraine received no advance warning from Western partners. “A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, no early warning from our partners,” he wrote, saying Ukrainian systems detected the missiles only as they neared the capital. Zelensky has said the U.S. threatened to restrict intelligence sharing if he did not sign up to the ceasefire; Trump denied on Tuesday that Washington was withholding intelligence, the BBC reported.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Ukraine does not deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would bring. Zelensky has said Ukraine is ready to stop striking Russian refineries and other energy sites if Moscow does the same. Russia’s Defense Ministry said 902 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, including 180 near Moscow, and a drone strike killed one person in Balakovo in the Saratov region, the local governor said.

Starlink Speed Limit Disrupts Ukrainian Missions

Serhiy Beskrestnov, a technology adviser to Zelensky, said SpaceX set a speed limit of 160 km/h (about 100 mph) on Starlink terminals overnight without warning Ukraine’s forces, disrupting a number of missions. He said the move “cannot be a coincidence and is related to the current political situation.” A Ukrainian defense ministry source told the BBC that terminals lose their connection once a vehicle exceeds that speed, which hampers interceptor and middle-strike drones as well as front-line logistics, reconnaissance and signal relays. SpaceX has not commented.

Rutte Presses Allies on Air Defense

“With winter coming, and with Russia’s aggression unrelenting, Allies need to do more, especially in support of air defence,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a press conference in Tallinn with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. Asked about U.S. intelligence sharing, Rutte pointed to Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, saying the president “was very clear” that “intelligence sharing has not stopped,” Euronews reported.

Michal said Estonia will add 10 million euros to NATO’s PURL program, which pays for U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, on top of 21 million euros already given. He said Estonia’s military aid to Ukraine equals 0.28% of GDP this year, down from 0.35% last year. Rutte is due to meet Zelensky in Brussels on Thursday on the margins of an EU summit, according to Euronews, and Zelensky was scheduled to meet U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London on Wednesday to discuss faster air defense deliveries, the BBC reported.

For earlier coverage, see our reports on the energy ceasefire’s second day, Zelensky’s first response to Trump’s ceasefire claim and Keith Kellogg’s comments on strikes against Russian refineries.

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