Ukraine War, 24 January 2026: The Russian Killer Strike

Ugh… thanks to the marvels of the social media, the last 12 hours or so one could monitor almost ‘live’ a particularly severe Russian missile- and drone-strike on what’s left of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

As first, around the midnight, the Russians deployed some 106 attack drones, something like this:

There’s no doubt that already Gerans have scored a number of hits. Here a still from a video showing several explosions in the Kharkiv area:

…and another two from a different video, showing a hit in Kharkiv:

About an hour later, a nation-wide alert was then sounded in Ukraine - apparently prompted by take-offs by several MiG-31Ks:

‘Instead’, the release of several Kh-32s (deployed by Tu-22M-3 bombers) was reported around 02.00hrs local time. Shortly after, multiple big fires and heavy smoke were visible in at least two areas around Kyiv:

Eventually, it turned out the Russians combined the Kh-32s with Iskander-Ms and Kinzhals, all released from north-east, and Zircons, released from the Black Sea, to strike at least four targets in the Kyiv area. Priimary targets were multiple powerplants and transformator stations in the Kyiv area.

• Kyiv 750kV station was targeted by 5 Iskander-Ms, 4 Kh-32s, and 2 Zircons,

• CHP-5 (heat - and powerplant) was targeted by two Iskander-Ms,

• CHP-6 (heat- and powerplant) was targeted by two Iskander-Ms,

while other missiles have targeted something in Radomyshl (Zhytomyr), Pryluky (Chernihiv), and Samar (Dnipropetrovsk).

The Kyiv station was knocked out; while CHP-5 and CHP-6 are out of operation for a while: thus, it appears the Russians sought to damage the former, and disable repairs on the latter two.

Additionally, EO-guided Gerans have found two Ukrainian helicopters at the Kirovohrad AB, and hit a Mi-24…

(here a confirmation for the Mi-24 being set afire)…

…and a Mi-8 parked nearby:

…overall, by what is known by now, the Russians have deployed the following totals:

• 2x Zircon (from the K-300P Bastion-P base at Cae Chaudra, occupied Crimea),

• 2x Kinzhal (from 2 MiG-31Ks underway over the Tambov Oblast),

• 6x Kh-32 (from 3 Tu-22M-3s underway over the Bryansk Oblast),

• 10x Iskander-M (from Bryansk, Klintsy, and Taganrog),

• 2x Iskander-K (from Khalino AB),

• 1x Kh-59 or Kh-69 (reportedly released by a single Su-57, but I would like to finally see some evidence it was a Su-57, not a Su-30 or Su-35)

The PSU is likely to release its claims in about ‘now’, but, AFAIK, except for ‘lots of Gerans’, confirmed is only the downing of that single Kh-59/69….

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Kind of ‘unsurprisingly’, already before this attack - yesterday at Davos - Maxim Timchenko (CEO DTEK) said that Ukraine is nearing a humanitarian catastrophe, and needs an ‘…energy ceasefire. A ceasefire on the energy assets…’

Reason?

Well… in grand total, all the Ukrainian claims about fantastic numbers of Russian missiles and attack drones shot down by air defences simply do not matter. Because, when one summarises the results, fact is that (according to Timchenko) the DTEK has lost some 60-70% of its power-generating capacity; the majority of the population is now down to having electricity for perhaps 3-4 hours a day; there is talk about mass-evacuation of Kyiv and few other bigger cities, and so on…

Hope, I need not explaining the hows and the whys again…

Bottom line: this was a well-coordinated, massive operation, which can be described as ‘typical’ for the last few months. A strike showing just how much have the Russians - their GenStab - learned since 2022: about proper intelligence-gathering, targeting practices, about combining different types of weaponry to obtain desired effects and overpower the Ukrainian IADS. Really a ‘killer strike’.

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Notable: since some 4-5 days, there are reports that the Russian Armed Forces are now deploying much improved Iskander-1000 tactical ballistic missiles against Ukraine.

A comparison between the original Iskander (left) and the longer-ranged Iskander-1000.