Context: On February 3, 2026, the Russian army launched missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The Darnytska CHP in Kyiv was destroyed. It provided heating for 300,000 families, as well as kindergartens, schools, and hospitals. As a result, more than a thousand high-rise buildings were left without central heating for the rest of the winter.
“Unlike Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump want peace. Ukraine dug her heels in, pretending to ‘not be that kind of girl,’” said political analyst Vadzim Yalfimau in an interview with Radio Minsk on January 30, 2026. He also explained how, in his opinion, Ukrainians “got themselves into the mess” of the energy collapse and why Russia is striking Ukrainian infrastructure in freezing temperatures.
“Let’s face it. I can remind the listeners that there have been no serious strikes on Ukraine, much less on the energy system, in the last four years. Only after the audacious attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence did it become clear that it a retaliatory strike is underway,” the political analyst said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the first to claim that Ukrainian drones attempted to attack Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai on December 29, 2025. The Russian side presented a “flight task file” of one of the neutralized drones as evidence. According to the local Defense Ministry, the drone’s final target was one of the residence’s facilities. US intelligence found no evidence to support this claim. According to their information, the drones were targeting a different object.
Even if we accept the Russian Foreign Ministry’s report as accurate, the attack on Putin’s residence cannot be considered the ground for the destruction of the Ukrainian energy system. In just the last three months of 2025, the WTF team counted dozens of official reports from the Russian Ministry of Defense itself that mention strikes on Ukraine’s gas and energy infrastructure. Even before the story about Putin’s residence came out in the fall of that year, Ukraine had lost more than half of its 38 GW of generating capacity since the war began. After the strikes carried out in the freezing conditions of mid-January, the share fell to under one third. The reason is the massive missile and drone strikes, as well as Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
Therefore, Vadzim Yalfimau’s claim that there were no strikes before the alleged attack on Putin’s residence is false.