Overview
- President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a nationwide energy emergency and a permanent coordination center in Kyiv after the city suffered massive blackouts from recent Russian strikes.
- Kyiv residents face rotating electricity with roughly three hours on and up to ten off, and about 400 residential blocks recently remained without heat, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
- Zelensky and new Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal criticized Kyiv’s preparedness and signaled steps such as loosening the nighttime curfew to improve access to roughly 1,200 warming points.
- Russia’s Belgorod region reports repeated outages linked to Ukrainian strikes; Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov urged families to consider sending children to relatives and said evacuation plans are being readied if infrastructure fails.
- Berlin restored power after the Jan. 3 arson on high‑voltage lines claimed by the ‘Vulkangruppen,’ as Mayor Kai Wegner faces scrutiny over playing tennis during the blackout and officials move to tighten security and acknowledge limits to fully protecting critical infrastructure.