Russia’s overnight missile and drone strike on Ukraine left 5,635 multi-storey residential buildings in Kyiv without heating and cut water supplies on the city’s left bank, as Ukraine’s air force reported a massed attack involving 372 aerial targets and confirmed strikes at multiple locations.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the heating outage followed the latest strikes on the capital’s infrastructure. He said almost 80 per cent of the affected buildings were among those where heat had been restored after an earlier Russian attack on 9 January. As of the evening of 19 January, he said only 16 buildings remained without heating from that earlier damage, before the new wave of strikes reversed the restoration effort.
Klitschko said left-bank Kyiv remained without water supply in the immediate aftermath of the attack. He added that municipal services and energy engineers were working to restore heat, water and electricity.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the “most difficult situation” was in Kyiv, where “a significant number” of residential buildings were without heating. He said Russia used ballistic and cruise missiles and more than 300 strike drones, with multiple regions coming under attack including Kyiv and the Kyiv region, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava and Sumy.
Ukraine’s air force, in a separate operational update, said the attack began at about 7pm on 19 January and involved a combined strike package of 372 drones and missiles. It reported the launch of one Zircon anti-ship missile from occupied Crimea, 18 ballistic missiles described as Iskander-M and S-300 types launched from Russia’s Bryansk and Rostov regions, 15 Kh-101 cruise missiles launched from Russia’s Vologda region, and 339 strike drones of various types, including Shahed drones and other models. The air force said the principal direction of the attack was the Kyiv region.
According to the same update, air defence and associated forces neutralised 342 aerial targets by 10am: 14 of the ballistic missiles, 13 Kh-101 cruise missiles and 315 drones across northern, southern, eastern and central Ukraine. It said impacts were recorded involving five missiles and 24 strike drones at 11 locations, while debris from downed drones fell at 12 locations. The status of two missiles was still being clarified, the air force said.
Reuters reported that the combined attack disrupted power, water and heating supplies in Kyiv amid freezing temperatures. It said one person was injured in the capital and that debris damaged a school building. The agency also reported that Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiha, called for urgent support from allies on energy and air defence.
Kyiv officials said there was damage in the Dniprovskyi district, where Klitschko reported a strike on non-residential buildings.
The air force’s breakdown underlined the mixed character of the strike, combining ballistic trajectories with cruise missiles and large numbers of drones. Ukrainian forces said the defence included aviation, surface-to-air missile units, electronic warfare elements, unmanned systems and mobile fire groups.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defences engaged a substantial number of targets, adding that newly received interceptor missiles had “significantly helped” in repelling the attack. He said Ukraine was seeking continued supplies of air-defence munitions, including for Patriot and NASAMS systems.
Outside the capital, officials reported damage in several regions. Regional authorities reported a fatality in the wider Kyiv region and damage to two petrol stations. A drone strike in Odesa region hit a residential high-rise building and damaged an energy infrastructure facility.
In Kyiv, the most immediate issue was the restoration of district heating and water to thousands of households, many of which had only recently returned to service after the 9 January strike. City authorities said repair crews were already deployed, but did not provide a timetable for full restoration in the initial statements.
