Moscow Targets Ukrainian Energy as Trump’s Keith Kellogg Visits Kyiv

Russia launched a combined missile and drone attack on Ukraine using 14 missiles and 161 drones in a series of overnight attacks that went into Thursday morning.

Out of all the drones, only three reached their targets, Kyiv reported.  

Air defense activity and explosions could be heard in the capital, where US President Donald Trump’s Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia, General Keith Kellogg, is on a working visit.

Facing a shortage, Ukraine is now seeking more Patriot missiles, or permission to manufacture its own from the US, as it continues to face regular Russian missile strikes.

Russian missiles also targeted critical infrastructure facilities in the east, in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region.

“As a result of the enemy attack, Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa, and Kyiv regions were affected. In the Kherson region, a Russian guided aerial bomb partially destroyed the entrance of a residential building, causing casualties. Rescue operations are ongoing,” Ukraine’s Air Force reported.

Moscow also targeted gas infrastructure, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy, Herman Halushchenko said.

“The goal of these criminal attacks is to halt gas production, which is essential for meeting household needs and centralized heating. All necessary measures are being taken to eliminate the consequences of the attacks and stabilize gas supplies,” Halushchenko said.

“These actions once again prove that Russia is deliberately trying to inflict suffering on ordinary Ukrainians, plunging them into cold in the middle of winter. This is outright terrorism,” he added.

In Odesa, a drone strike caused fires on the roof of a restaurant and a warehouse. An administrative building, a car wash, a roadway, and windows of a private house were also damaged. A 55-year-old local resident was injured and hospitalized in moderate condition, Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional military administration reported.

Around 5,000 residents in one district of Odesa were left without electricity. Overall, after two days of attacks on the Odesa region, about 89,500 subscribers lost power during the night, Kiper said. By morning, after repair work, 49,000 subscribers were still without electricity, he said.