Russian Barrage Knocks Out Power for 600,000 Ukrainians

KYIV — Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, striking energy plants in Kyiv and Kharkiv and leaving more than 600,000 people without electricity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.

The barrage shattered an energy ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump last weekend. Zelensky said the strikes hit 26 power facilities and four oil and gas installations.

“Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” Zelensky said of the deliberate scale of the attack.

The assault came hours after Zelensky warned that Ukraine had received no advance notice from its partners before a deadly strike on a Kyiv power plant Tuesday. Ukrainian air defenses detected those missiles only as they approached the capital, he said.

Several people were killed and more than 20 injured, including a child, according to early reports from Kyiv. A nine-story apartment building caught fire after a strike around 1:30 a.m.

Zelensky asked Trump to impose the sanctions bill passed by Congress and to supply Patriot interceptors. Russia’s defense ministry said it downed 902 drones overnight, according to Interfax.

State officials warned rolling blackouts could spread as crews work to stabilize the grid.

In Philadelphia, home to a sizable Ukrainian community centered on parishes and aid groups in the Northeast, the strikes mean another winter of worry for families with relatives in Kyiv and Kharkiv.