Russia launched a broad missile-and-drone assault across Ukraine on Christmas morning, striking energy facilities and forcing emergency power restrictions as air-raid warnings spread across much of the country. Ukrainian officials reported attacks or explosions in several regions, with Kharkiv among the cities hit hardest.
Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 78 missiles and 106 drones. According to its account, Ukrainian defenses destroyed 59 cruise and guided missiles as well as 54 drones, while another 52 drones were recorded as lost. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage included more than 70 missiles and more than 100 attack drones, and that some weapons reached their targets. The figures were official Ukrainian assessments made in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The northeastern city of Kharkiv came under repeated ballistic-missile fire. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said at least seven strikes targeted the city and initially reported six people injured, while Mayor Ihor Terekhov described explosions during a continuing attack. Fires and damage to civilian infrastructure were reported. The Guardian, citing local and national officials, reported that roughly half a million people in the wider Kharkiv region lost heating as temperatures remained only a few degrees above freezing.
Damage extended beyond Kharkiv. Ukrainian officials reported explosions in Dnipro, Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rih and Ivano-Frankivsk, while energy infrastructure was targeted in the Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhii Lysak said one person was killed in an attack on energy infrastructure. In the Kyiv region, falling drone debris damaged a cafe, three homes and 12 trucks, according to Governor Ruslan Kravchenko.
Emergency blackouts were imposed in multiple cities. Energy Minister German Galushchenko said the electricity transmission operator introduced supply restrictions to limit the consequences of the assault. DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, reported serious equipment damage at thermal power plants but did not identify the facilities. The company described the operation as the thirteenth large-scale attack on Ukraine's energy sector during 2024 and the tenth on its own assets.
Zelensky accused Moscow of deliberately choosing Christmas for the operation and said energy infrastructure was the central target. Russia's defence ministry said it had carried out a mass strike against critical energy facilities that supply Ukraine's defence industry. Those competing descriptions agreed that the power system was a focus of the attack, though they framed its purpose differently.
The barrage also prompted a response outside Ukraine. Poland scrambled fighter aircraft because of the missile threat near western Ukraine, according to the Polish Operational Command. US Ambassador Bridget Brink condemned the attack, while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for continued support for Ukraine.
The strike came amid an intensified Russian campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure during winter. Repeated attacks since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 had severely reduced the country's generating capacity and led to recurring outages. Ukraine had continued to seek stronger air defenses from allies as it tried to protect the power network.
For many Ukrainians, the timing carried added significance. December 25 was the country's second Christmas observed on that date after the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine moved away from the calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church. The holiday began with families sheltering from incoming weapons and energy crews confronting another round of damage to a grid already under sustained pressure.
