Russia resumed missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, local officials said on Tuesday, ending a brief reprieve agreed to by Moscow and Washington as Ukrainians grapple with plummeting winter temperatures.
CNN staff in the capital Kyiv reported hearing several strong explosions in the city.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week agreed to pause attacking major Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure until Sunday, following a "personal request" from US President Donald Trump, according to the Kremlin.
The pause also came following trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi, the first such talks since Moscow's invasion in February 2022.
Several multi-storey residential buildings and a kindergarten had been damaged, according to reports, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, wrote on Telegram. Three people were wounded in the attack on the capital, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.
Video posted by the State Emergency Service shows flames billowing out of a high-rise residential block and response teams working through the night in freezing conditions.
Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine, was also attacked by ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. And Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv was attacked by Russian missiles and drones that targeted the city's energy infrastructure, causing damage that will leave at least 820 high-rise buildings without heat supply, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.
"The goal is obvious: to cause maximum damage and leave the city without heat in severe frost," Terekhov said.
Kyiv residents spent 7 hours under an air raid alert, and the attack came as Ukrainians contend with some of the coldest temperatures this winter. On early Tuesday morning local time, the temperature in Kyiv was -20 Celsius ( - 4 Fahrenheit) and in Kharkiv -25 C (-13 F).
Residents could be seen taking shelter at the Kyiv metro bundled up in thick coats and hats, and huddled under sleeping bags and blankets.
This is the first time that strikes have been reported on energy facilities and major cities since last Thursday, according to Ukrainian authorities, though Russia continued to strike logistics routes and transport infrastructure during that time, withdeadly results.
"In the freezing cold, Russians decided to launch another massive strike on Kyiv," Tkachenko said following the strikes early Tuesday.
'Survival mode'
Before the Abu Dhabi talks, Russia had stepped up attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving swaths of the country facing power shortages and outages in the depths of winter.
The Kremlin has confirmed that the next round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States aimed at ending the war will take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
Ukraine's biggest private energy company is in "survival mode," its CEO told CNN, with the next few weeks critical as the country grapples with plummeting temperature and the "worst condition of our energy system in modern history."
DTEK currently operates five thermal power plants in Ukraine, of which two are currently offline and the other three are functioning at low capacity, Maxim Timchenko told CNN Monday in an interview from Dnipro.
He said the company was working to repair the damage from repeated Russian attacks, but it's often not possible in freezing weather conditions.
His biggest hope right now is that the energy ceasefire announced last week, which he says brought a five-day reprieve in attacks on DTEK's thermal power plants, is extended in talks in Abu Dhabi this week.
DTEK said Sunday that Moscow had launched a "large-scale attack" on its coal mines in the region, striking a bus carrying miners who had just finished their shift killing at least 12.
Helen Regan contributed reporting
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