MoscowThe Russian military has launched the biggest bombardment of 2026 against Ukrainian cities, ending a truce pushed by Donald Trump. In total, it has sent 450 drones and more than 60 missiles, including ballistic ones, mostly against energy facilities and residential areas in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Sumi and Odessa. Although the ceasefire was originally intended to stop attacks in a period of freezing temperatures, Tuesday morning in Ukraine saw thermometers drop below minus 20 degrees across much of the country, leaving thousands at the mercy of the cold.
At least five people were injured in their homes in Kyiv and also in Kharkiv, where more than 800 buildings were left without heating. The most significant damage has occurred in electricity production plants. One of the targets has been a substation that connects the Rivne nuclear power plant in the country’s northwest with Kyiv and the central regions of Ukraine, which have suffered previous bombings. Indeed, its failure was cited as one of the main reasons for the capital’s severe supply problems. The Russian devices also hit several thermal power plants and damaged critical equipment, according to Ukrainian authorities, in the ninth large-scale attack on the country’s energy sector since last October.
For practical purposes, the truce will have lasted about five days, although no one officially decreed the beginning and no one has reported the end. According to military bloggers, shelling of Ukrainian energy infrastructure stopped early Thursday. During this period, Volodymyr Zelensky himself admitted that Russia had not attacked electrical installations, although he did report that logistics and transport had suddenly become targets, with explosions on trains and buses causing dozens of casualties.
Replenish drone warehouses
The Kremlin has taken advantage of the vagueness of Trump’s request, “not to attack Kyiv for a week”, to accept the invitation while also maintaining military pressure against the enemy. This has allowed the Russian military to replenish drone stockpiles as, in recent weeks, many of the unmanned vehicles they had sent against Ukraine contained serial numbers indicating they had just been manufactured. According to experts, all this anticipates new massive attacks by Russia in the coming days.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sibiha, has precisely accused Vladimir Putin of waiting for the temperatures to drop in order to store drones and missiles and “continue his genocidal attacks against the Ukrainian people”. And he added: “Neither the diplomatic efforts planned in Abu Dhabi this week nor his promises to the United States prevented him from continuing the terror against people running through the harshest winter. We are dealing with terrorists who must be forced to stop the violence.”
The only stated reason Moscow agreed to accept this truce was to “create favorable conditions” for the trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States that were due to take place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday and will eventually be held on Wednesday and Thursday. With this morning’s massive bombings, Putin shows again that he prefers to sit down and negotiate from a position of strength than after having made concessions.
