Russian drone and missile strikes fell in January but still crippled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing the worst outages of the war.
KYIV: Russia launched fewer long-range drones and missiles at Ukraine in January compared to December, according to an AFP analysis of Ukrainian air force data.
The attacks still inflicted the most serious electricity, heating and water outages of the nearly four-year war.
Russia fired 4,452 long-range drones, a 13% decrease from December, and 135 missiles, a 23% decrease.
Ukrainian air defences intercepted 3,788 of the 4,587 projectiles launched, a success rate of 83%.
This marked a slight improvement from the 80% interception rate recorded the previous month.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow had switched its attacks to target logistics and frontline areas.
He has recently complained that Western-supplied air defence systems are running out of ammunition.
The capital Kyiv, home to over three million people, was worst hit by the outages.
Residents were forced to seek warmth and electricity at hundreds of emergency tents set up by authorities.
US President Donald Trump last week raised hopes for a temporary halt to strikes on energy facilities.
He said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to pause attacks on Kyiv “and other cities”.
The Kremlin later announced that the reported week-long change in tactics had almost already expired.
