Kyiv: Russian ballistic missiles hit a thermal power plant and an apartment block, three dead; Zelensky: “Again no warning from partners”

Russia struck Kyiv with ballistic missiles in successive waves from the evening of Tuesday, October 13 until the early hours of Wednesday. The main target was the capital’s energy infrastructure, in particular Combined Heat and Power Plant 4 (CHPP-4), where, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, there were hits; he described it as one of the city’s key energy facilities.

According to the State Emergency Service, three people were killed and 21 injured, among them a child. The first strike, at around 22:40 local time, also hit a nine-storey apartment block in the Desnianskyi district, where a large fire broke out. Firefighters put out the blaze over an area of 400 square metres, evacuated 16 residents and recovered two bodies, while the service’s psychologists helped 110 people. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said later that several of the city’s energy facilities had been hit and that one more person was killed in the Holosiivskyi district. Fires also broke out in abandoned buildings in the Dniprovskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts.

“No warning from partners”

For the second day in a row Kyiv did not receive timely warning of the launches. Ukraine’s Air Force said the situation was “similar to yesterday’s” and that “there was no information from partners about launches from the enemy’s territory”, adding that the causes are being investigated. Zelensky wrote that the missiles were detected by the Ukrainian system “essentially when they were already approaching Kyiv” and that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia is preparing new ballistic missile launches.

The “energy ceasefire”

The strike comes a few days after Donald Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine. Zelensky noted that Ukraine backed the pause in strikes on energy, while Russia “does not consider it necessary to observe” what the American president said. “It is not fair that they destroy energy and Ukraine does not even get warnings about launches,” he wrote, asking the United States to see “who is to blame that the war continues”.

Moscow had already threatened ballistic missiles and Geran drones through Dmitry Medvedev, as the Kremlin called Zelensky “hysterical”. The number and type of missiles in the latest attack have not been announced, and the extent of the damage to the power generation units was not known on Wednesday morning.