Utility and energy workers are scrambling to restore heating services to nearly 6,000 homes in the capital following Russia’s overnight attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said. Most of the homes were already connected, or “have tried” to be connected, to heating supplies since attacks on January 9 and January 13 – followed by a new round of attacks on Tuesday – wiped out access for many, Klitschko said. As of Wednesday, roughly 60 percent of Kyiv was still without electricity. Residents were also reporting problems with water supplies, the mayor added.
Water vapour rises from residential buildings’ autonomous heating systems during a power blackout after critical civil infrastructure was hit by Russian missile and drone attacks, in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 19, 2026 [Vladyslav Sodel/Reuters]
Russian strikes leave hundreds of thousands without energy in Chernihiv region
The Chernihivoblenergo energy company says Russian strikes have left hundreds of thousands of people without energy in the northern Chernihiv region. In a Telegram post, it said restoration work was ongoing but warned that the security situation could mean the issue will not be imminently resolved. The temperatures in Ukraine often fall well below 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit), with Chernihiv at around -13 C (8.6 F). Chernihivoblenergo said a facility had been damaged in the Nizhyn district.“We’re doing everything possible to ensure that electricity returns to every home as soon as possible,” it said.
What are the sticking points in the Moscow-Kyiv talks?
The two main issues negotiators must hammer out are territorial disputes and security guarantees. Specifically, Russia is steadfast that the Ukrainian army must leave the Donbas region – a prospect that is unacceptable to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that Russia’s demand that Ukraine yield all of Donbas – including the 20 percent of Donetsk which is still under Ukrainian control – remains “a very important condition” for Russia. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been just as firm, telling journalists that “the issue of Donbas is key” for Ukraine going into the talks.At the same time, Ukraine has demanded security guarantees from its Western allies, including the US, to prevent Russia from invading again. Zelenskyy wrote on X late last night that Ukraine must achieve “full security” in any peace deal.
Attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure intensify
There is the very real feeling here that whenever talks get under way, whenever there is the faintest prospect of peace, these attacks resume. There were attacks overnight in the city of Kharkiv, but really all of eastern Ukraine came under attack last night, all the major cities from Kyiv down to Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Chernihiv. For example, the city of Chernihiv, just three hours’ drive from here in the capital, a city of about a quarter of a million people, is now in total blackout. Here in Kyiv, we have been seeing attacks on energy infrastructure since the beginning of the month. The entirety of the left bank, many thousands of people, are without electricity, some of them since January 9. So, it is a situation that is getting worse by the day.
Woman killed in Kyiv at confectionary factory: Emergency Service
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has shared new details on Russia’s overnight attack on Kyiv. In the Holosiivskyi district, strikes destroyed the top floor of a confectionery factory, killing one woman and wounding two more, the service wrote on Telegram. A home in the same area also sustained damage. Meanwhile, in the Dniprovskyi district, where one person was wounded, firefighters extinguished flames at a garage and a fuel truck. An uninhabited residential high-rise building was destroyed in the Darnytskyi district, while an office building in the Solomianskyi district was damaged. Firefighters put out flames at both locations, the service said.
