Kiev hit by 16 ballistic missiles, half a million homes without power

This morning we reported on the launch of more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones against Russian territory, one of the largest aerial raids conducted by Kiev during the course of the war, together with Donald Trump’s decision to intervene on sanctions against Moscow. During the night between October 18 and 19 the situation worsened: according to Ukrainian sources and international agencies, Russia responded with an attack on Kiev, Kryvyi Rih and Sloviansk carried out with 16 ballistic missiles against energy and other infrastructure in the country.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, more than ten energy facilities were damaged in the attack. At least 550,000 households were left without electricity. In Kiev a 25-story building was hit: a 21-year-old woman died and five people were injured in the partial collapse of the structure.

“It must be stopped” (transl. from English) — Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine

The Ukrainian president used these words in reference to the Russian campaign against the country’s energy infrastructure, which continued despite Ukraine’s attack on Saturday on Russian territory, carried out with more than 1,000 drones and resulting in the death of at least one person in St. Petersburg, according to Ukrainian sources and international agencies.

On the diplomatic front, a clarification has emerged in recent hours regarding what was reported this morning. It is not merely a postponement: U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order exempting Russia from new sanctions and new tariffs, while at the same time criticizing Saturday’s Ukrainian attack on Russian oil facilities. The measure therefore concerns measures not yet adopted, not those already in force, and comes alongside an explicit judgment by Trump on Ukraine’s choice to strike Russian energy infrastructure just days after his call for a truce on the energy front.

Further complicating the picture is U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told reporters in Uzbekistan that he did not know the precise circumstances behind the lack of advance warning to Kiev about the Russian missile attack overnight.

The double attack — Ukrainian drones on Russian energy infrastructure during the night between Saturday and Sunday, Russian missiles on Ukrainian infrastructure the following night — thus marks a new phase of mutual exchange on the energy front of the conflict. On the diplomatic level, the U.S. position is moving along two parallel tracks: the easing of sanctions toward Moscow on future measures and, at the same time, open criticism of Kiev’s offensive choices. The exact extent of the damage to the Ukrainian energy facilities hit overnight and the reasons for the lack of advance warning mentioned by Rubio remain to be clarified in the coming hours.