BBC | Ukrainian cities have come under large-scale attack on Christmas Day morning from Russian ballistic and cruise missiles.
The energy minister German Galushchenko said: "The enemy is carrying out a mass attack on the energy system again."
He said restrictions on electricity supply have been put in place to cope with the strikes. A number of explosions rocked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
There were preliminary reports from local officials of injuries. The city of Dnipro also reportedly came under attack.
While many people around the world will be waking up to a peaceful and joyous day spent with family, for Ukrainians, Christmas morning began very differently: sirens, explosions, and destruction.
In Kyiv, alerts from the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces pinged incessantly on our mobile phones as they reported more and more missiles being launched at Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said its thermal power plants had been seriously damaged in the strikes and repairs were underway.
The majority of Ukraine’s power grid has been systematically damaged or destroyed by Russia in recent months, resulting in emergency blackouts in recent days in Kyiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian regions.
Russia, it seems, is attempting to plunge Ukrainians into darkness on Christmas morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has just responded to Russia's Christmas Day attack:
"Every Russian massive strike takes time to prepare. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a conscious choice not only of targets, but also of time and date.
"Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than 100 strike drones. The targets are our energy sector. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.
"According to preliminary data, our defenders managed to shoot down more than 50 missiles and a significant part of the drones. Unfortunately, there are hits. As of now, there are outages in several regions. Energy workers are working to restore the power supply as soon as possible.
"Thank you to everyone who is currently working for the country, who is on combat duty, who is protecting our sky. Let's restore the maximum. Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas."
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, has just issued an update, saying they faced another "massive missile attack on energy facilities" this morning.
Ihor Terekhov says 12 missiles were launched at the city, targeting energy facilities such as boiler houses and power plants. As a result, a large part of Kharkiv is currently without heating.
He says at least four people have been injured in the city so far (earlier reports said six).
"All our specialised municipal services will work to maintain the heat and restart the heating system. We will work around the clock to restore normal life in the city as soon as possible," he says.