Russia fires 39 ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s power grid

Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones and loitering munitions at Ukraine’s energy and critical infrastructure overnight into Oct. 14, knocking out power to at least 600,000 people days after President Donald Trump announced a halt to strikes on energy facilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy said that the attack targeted Kyiv, the surrounding Kyiv region and Kharkiv, and damaged equipment at 26 facilities in Ukraine’s power system and four in the oil and gas sector. He warned that outages could spread further and said there were dead and injured, without giving numbers. Repair crews, power company staff and the State Emergency Service were working to restore supply on Wednesday morning.

Zelenskyy described the ballistic missile salvo as aimed specifically at the energy infrastructure covered by the ceasefire Trump announced on Truth Social on Oct. 11, and called the scale of the strike deliberate and demonstrative.

“Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States,” said Zelenskyy.

Moscow never confirmed accepting Trump’s energy ceasefire, and its scope remained disputed after the announcement, with a White House official telling Axios that the proposal initially covered oil refineries, while power plants and electricity grids might follow later. Zelenskyy told Fox News on Oct. 12 that Ukraine had held off on striking Russian energy facilities after the announcement, while Russia kept hitting Ukrainian gas and power sites. Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Denys Sienik, said Russia had struck electricity generation and transmission facilities more than 200 times in the week before the announcement.

“Russia has squandered the opportunity for de-escalation and has clearly chosen to continue its insane war of annihilation,” said Zelenskyy.

Ballistic missiles are the hardest part of a Russian strike package for Ukraine to stop, because they fly too fast and too high for most of the country’s air defenses, and Ukraine relies mainly on U.S.-made Patriot systems to intercept them. Zelenskyy asked Washington and other partners for additional packages of Patriot interceptors, saying no country should be left alone against Russia.

He also called on Trump to impose strong sanctions on Russia under the sanctions law sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, which Trump signed on Sept. 18 and which gives the president authority to raise tariffs and restrict Russian energy trade, with key measures due to take effect by Oct. 18.

“We ask President Trump to impose STRONG sanctions on Russia, especially since the Lindsey Graham bill, which was recently passed and signed into law, authorizes and regulates such measures,” said Zelenskyy.

The strike followed Trump’s Oct. 9 announcement of a deal to release Russian diesel onto U.S. and world markets, starting with 300,000 tons immediately and 500,000 tons in November, after the Treasury waived diesel sanctions until April 2027. Critics in Congress have said the arrangement gives Moscow additional revenue for the war. The White House had not responded publicly to the overnight strike by Wednesday morning, and Russia’s Defense Ministry had not commented on its targets.