President Volodymyr Zelensky urged US President Donald Trump to impose strong sanctions on Russia after a massive overnight Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure left at least 600,000 people without electricity.
In a Telegram post on Oct. 14, Zelensky said Russia had launched 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 attack drones and loitering munitions against energy and critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kyiv region and Kharkiv.
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He described the ballistic strike on Ukraine’s energy sector as deliberate and said its scale demonstrated Russia’s disregard for Washington’s calls for a ceasefire.
“Russia does not view the US President’s statements as strong,” Zelensky said, calling on the US and others to respond firmly to Moscow’s actions.
He urged Trump to impose “STRONG sanctions” on Russia, referring to legislation introduced by US Senator Lindsey Graham that Zelensky said provided the necessary tools to increase pressure on Moscow. He also called for additional interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot air defense systems.
“Peace can only be achieved through strength,” Zelensky said, invoking a principle associated with former US President Ronald Reagan.
The president added that further power outages were possible as Ukrainian crews worked to repair the damage. According to him, the attack damaged facilities and equipment at 26 sites in Ukraine’s electric power system and four facilities in the oil and gas sector. He also reported casualties and injuries but did not provide figures.
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Air defenses intercept 119 targets
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia began the combined attack at 6 p.m. on Oct. 13, launching 167 aerial weapons, including 39 missiles and 128 attack drones of various types.
The missiles included Iskander-M, North Korean KN-23, S-400, Zircon and Onyx types. The drones included Shahed-type weapons, among them 77 jet-powered drones, as well as Banderol, Dan-T, Gerbera, Italmas and Parodiya-type drones.
Ukraine’s Air Force said aviation, anti-aircraft missile units, electronic warfare systems, unmanned systems units and mobile fire groups were involved in repelling the attack.
As of 9 a.m. on Oct. 14, Ukrainian air defenses had shot down or suppressed 119 targets: four missiles and 115 drones. The intercepted drones included 59 jet-powered ones.
The Air Force reported missile and drone impacts at 22 locations, while debris from intercepted targets fell at eight locations. Some Russian missiles failed to reach their intended targets.
Ukraine reports missing missile warnings for second night as White House offers no explanation
Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv’s CHP-4 power plant and a nine-story residential building late on Oct. 13, killing at least three people and injuring 21, including an eight-year-old child, Ukrainian officials reported.
The attack hit the capital at around 10:40 p.m., sparking fires across several districts. In Desnianskyi district, a fire spread across apartments on the first through eighth floors before firefighters extinguished it.
Rescuers recovered two bodies from the building and evacuated 16 residents, while other strikes caused fires and casualties in Holosiivskyi, Dniprovskyi, Darnytskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts.
Zelensky said CHP-4 was a main target and that Ukraine had received no advance warning from Western partners about the incoming ballistic missiles for the second consecutive night.
The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that no warning had come through the usual channels, while presidential adviser Dmytro Lytvyn said military and intelligence services were investigating the missing notifications.
Notably, President Donald Trump said Washington continues to share intelligence with Ukraine, rejecting suggestions that the US had halted cooperation.
However, his administration has yet to explain why Ukraine received no early missile warnings for two consecutive nights.
Asked by Fox News correspondent whether the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv, newly appointed White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said Oct. 13: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
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