UN Official Urges End to Attacks Crippling Ukraine

This cinema in Saltivka, Kharkiv, was hit during an earlier strike (file Jan 2026).

The senior UN official in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, has condemned a massive overnight Russian drone and missile strike on several major Ukrainian cities that killed and injured civilians and knocked out energy infrastructure amid sub-zero temperatures.

The attacks on some of Ukraine’s most important population centres, which reportedly involved nearly 400 drones, left thousands without electricity, heating and water.

Temperatures across the country have dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius, and damage to energy infrastructure has left families in freezing conditions. Many older people and persons with disabilities remain trapped in high-rise apartment buildings without electricity or heating, unable to cook hot meals or recharge devices needed to stay connected.

The latest attacks occurred during ongoing peace talks in the United Arab Emirates involving delegates from Russia, Ukraine and the United States.

In Kharkiv, a dormitory housing displaced people who fled frontline fighting came under fire, while a hospital and several residential buildings were also damaged.

In the capital, Kyiv, thousands of apartment buildings that had gradually been reconnected to basic utilities after previous attacks on January 9 and 20 were again left without electricity in sub-zero temperatures.

The entire city of Chernihiv, along with hundreds of thousands of families in the surrounding region, was left without power.

Repair crews and humanitarian workers continue to operate in extremely low temperatures to assist affected communities.

According to media reports, more than one million people across the country are without electricity, including around 800,000 in Kyiv.

“This systematic cycle of attacks on energy infrastructure violates international humanitarian law and must stop,” Mr Schmale, the Humanitarian Coordinator, said in a statement. Ukrainian civilians, he added, should be able to live in safety and warmth, not in fear of the next wave of destruction.