However, this morning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of “fighting against the ordinary life of people” with its early-hours strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Russia attacked electrical power facilities across much of Ukraine – including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant and Europe’s largest nuclear power station – causing widespread outages and killing at least three people, officials said.

Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app: “The world sees the targets of Russian terrorists as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential buildings, even a trolleybus. Russia is fighting against the ordinary life of people.”

Ukraine had vowed to target Russia‘s energy infrastructure after repeated attacks on its own energy grid from Russia. Last year Zelensky said his military would strike back if Russia renewed its attacks on Ukraine‘s energy grid.

His comments came after Russia fired more than 1,200 missile and drone strikes at Ukraine’s power stations during the winter of 2022, according to the FT. 

“This year we will not only defend ourselves, but also respond,” Zelenskiy said in a statement on Telegram in October 2023. It would appear Ukraine‘s leader was true to his word – prompting the White House to issue its plea.

And Russia‘s president Vladimir Putin appears to have responded as Washington feared he would. Speaking this morning on X,

Ukraine‘s Vice Prime Minister ykhailo Federov said: “It was such a difficult night for Ukraine. Mixed air attack of 151 different kind of missiles and kamikaze drones targeted Ukrainian cities.

“One of the largest hit on the energy infrastructure. Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyy, Kharkiv, Dnipro suffered the most.”