Putin Says Attack on Ukraine Energy Infrastructure Is Response to Strikes by ‘Western-Made Missiles’

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a welcoming ceremony at the Akorda presidential residence in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 27, 2024. Sputnik/Mikhail Tereschenko/Pool via REUTERS

Russia has attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with nearly 200 drones and missiles, leaving more than a million households without power.

President Vladimir Putin, who is at a summit in Kazakhstan, said the attacks were a direct response to the Ukrainians firing missiles provided by the United States and other NATO countries into Russia.

Referring to Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile system, Putin said, “Of course, we will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with long-range Western-made missiles, as has already been said, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions, as was done on Nov. 21.”

He added: “At present, the ministry of defense and the general staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory. These could be military facilities, defense and industrial enterprises, or decision-making centers in Kyiv.”

He did not say what “decision-making centers” he was referring to.

Kyiv is heavily protected by air defenses, but Putin says the Oreshnik missile—which it fired for the first time at a Ukrainian city last week—travels too fast to be intercepted.

After outgoing President Joe Biden reversed his position and gave his approval for Ukraine to fire U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles into Russian territory, the Ukrainians used them for the first time on Nov. 19.

Russia then fired the Oreshnik at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Since then, the Kremlin says Ukraine fired more ATACMS missiles at its Kursk region on Nov. 23, and Nov. 25.

Putin, who is attending a meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)—which includes Belarus and four other former Soviet republics—said Moscow plans to ramp up production of the Oreshnik.

‘Weaponizing Winter’

Ukrainian officials have in the past accused Russia of “weaponizing winter.”

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia was stockpiling cruise and ballistic missiles for another campaign against Ukraine’s power grid.

“They were [being] helped by their crazy allies, including from North Korea,” Yermak said.

Winters in Ukraine can be bitterly cold, and without heating, there is a risk of death for the elderly, very young, and those in hospital.

In January 2024, the lowest temperature recorded was minus 16.3 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F).

Roughly half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed since Russia invaded in February 2022, and the government faces a constant struggle to keep the lights on.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said in a Facebook post: “Again, energy is under a massive blow of the enemy. Attacks on energy infrastructure happening throughout Ukraine.”

He said emergency power outages were being introduced and added.

“As soon as the security situation will be allowed, the consequences will be specified,” he said.

A Russian Su-34 bomber drops bombs at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Nov. 28, 2024. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service photo via AP

Explosions were reported in Kyiv and the cities of Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, and Lutsk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russians were using Kalibr cruise missiles, equipped with cluster munitions, against civilian targets.

Zelenskyy: ‘Insidious Escalation’

Zelenskyy, writing on Telegram, called it, “an insidious escalation.”

“Each such attack proves that air defense systems are needed now in Ukraine, where they save lives, and not at storage bases,” he said.

Amid the backdrop of the attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Russia’s commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, claimed that a deal had been agreed to reunite nine children with their families.

Lvova-Belova said the transfers were agreed following mediation by Qatar.

She said six boys and one girl, aged 6 to 16, were being returned to relatives in Ukraine, while two children would be reunited with family in Russia.

Ukraine says about 20,000 children have been taken to Russia, or Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine, without the consent of their families since February 2022.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Lvova-Belova and Putin related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Russia said the warrants were “outrageous and unacceptable” and has always claimed it was simply protecting children from danger during the conflict.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.