By Max Hunder
Aftermath of Russian drone strike in Kyiv
KYIV, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukrainian energy facilities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles on Tuesday, knocking out heating to hundreds of thousands of families in freezing temperatures a day before new peace talks, Ukrainian officials said.
The capital Kyiv and Ukraine's second biggest city, Kharkiv, came under fire in overnight airstrikes that Ukraine's energy minister said were spread across eight regions and followed a brief moratorium on attacks on energy facilities.
Russia launched 450 drones and over 70 missiles and at least nine people were wounded in attacks that struck apartment blocks as well as energy infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said. Electricity and heating was knocked out in many areas, with temperatures around or below -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit).
"Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than resorting to diplomacy," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, accusing Moscow of choosing "terror and escalation".
He was referring to talks involving Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and Thursday as Washington tries to broker an end to nearly four years of war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The first round of trilateral talks in late January led to no movement on the vital question of territory, with Moscow demanding Kyiv cede more land in east Ukraine, which it refuses to do.
Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine, which is struggling to stop grinding Russian advances on the battlefield, was ready for "substantive" talks. Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the failure to agree a peace deal.
SUB-ZERO TEMPERATURES
Kyiv is under U.S. pressure to agree to a peace deal while attacks by Russia on Ukraine's energy system appear intended to freeze it into submission during one of the coldest winters in years.
Russia and Ukraine said last week they had halted strikes on each other's energy infrastructure, but they disagreed on the timeframe for the moratorium and there were again widespread attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities overnight.
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Among the infrastructure that was hit overnight were facilities to heat water for distribution to Ukrainian homes.
"Hundreds of thousands of families, including children, were deliberately left without heating during the harshest winter conditions, with temperatures dropping to −25 °C," Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on X.
In Kyiv, Reuters reporters heard a series of loud explosions after midnight.
Local authorities said 1,170 apartment blocks in the capital had been left without heating by the attack.
The strikes caused damage in five Kyiv districts, hitting three apartment blocks and a building housing a kindergarten, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram.
Flames consumed an apartment on the upper floors of a Kyiv building in videos posted on social media. An air raid alert stayed in effect for more than five hours.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the attacks targeted energy infrastructure, leaving over 800 buildings without heat, as water was drained from radiator systems to stop them freezing in the bitter cold.
"The goal is obvious: to cause maximum destruction and leave the city without heat in severe cold," Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said 110,000 properties in Kharkiv were left without heating after the attack.
Public broadcaster Suspilne also said Russian strikes had knocked out electricity in two towns in the Kharkiv region, Izium and Balakliia, and struck two apartment buildings in the northern city of Sumy.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; additonal reporting by Gleb Garanich and Valentyn Ogirenko; Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Timothy Heritage)
