Russia uses record number of ballistic missiles in biggest barrage of
Ukraine’s power grid this year
[February 03, 2026]
By KAMILA HRABCHUK
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired around 450 long-range drones and 70
missiles of various types at Ukraine in a major attack overnight,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday.
The barrage came as NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte visited Kyiv in a
show of support and a day before Russia and Ukraine were due to attend
U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on ending
the all-out war, which Russia launched nearly four years ago.
The bombardment of at least five regions of Ukraine included a record
number of 32 ballistic missiles and specifically took aim at the power
grid, Zelenskyy said, as part of Moscow’s ongoing campaign to deny
civilians light, heating and running water during the coldest winter in
years.
Private power company DTEK said it was the heaviest barrage of the
electricity network this year. At least 10 people were wounded,
officials said.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is
more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said. Temperatures
in Kyiv fell to minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) during the
night and stood at minus 16 C (minus 3 F) on Tuesday.
He urged allies to send more air defense supplies and bring “maximum
pressure” to bear on Russia to end its full-scale invasion, which began
on Feb. 24, 2022.
Officials have described recent talks between Moscow and Kyiv
delegations as constructive. But after a year of efforts, the Trump
administration is still searching for a breakthrough on key issues such
as who keeps the Ukrainian land that Russia’s army has occupied, and a
comprehensive settlement appears distant. The Abu Dhabi talks were
scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.
NATO show of support
Rutte addressed the Ukrainian parliament during his visit and said that
countries in the military alliance "are ready to provide support quickly
and consistently” as peace efforts drag on.
Since last summer, NATO members have provided 75% of all missiles
supplied to the front, and 90% of those used for Ukraine's air defense,
he said.
European countries, fearing Moscow's ambitions, see their own future
security as being on the line in Ukraine.
“Be assured that NATO stands with Ukraine and is ready to do so for
years to come," Rutte said. “Your security is our security. Your peace
is our peace. And it must be lasting.”
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People take shelter in a metro station, being used as a bomb
shelter, during a Russian drones attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday,
Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Babenko)
Power grid attacks
A Kremlin official said last week that Russia had agreed to halt
strikes on Kyiv for a week until Feb. 1 because of the frigid
temperatures, following a personal request from U.S. President
Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the
bitter cold is continuing and so are Russia’s aerial attacks.
Russia has tried to wear down Ukrainians’ appetite for the fight by
creating hardship for the civilian population living in dark,
freezing homes.
It has tried to wreck Ukraine’s electricity network, targeting
substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants.
Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, said that the
overnight attack hit its thermal power plants in the ninth major
assault since October.
In Kyiv, officials said that five people were wounded in the strikes
that damaged and set fire to residential buildings, a kindergarten
and a gas station in various parts of the capital, according to the
State Emergency Service.
By early morning, 1,170 apartment buildings in the capital were
without heating, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. That set back
desperate repair operations that had restored power to all but 80
apartment buildings, he said.
Russia also struck Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where
injuries were reported, and the southern Odesa region.
The attack also damaged the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of
the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, at the foot of the
Motherland Monument in Kyiv, Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana
Berezhna said.
“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time: the aggressor state
strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the
20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st,” Berezhna said.
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