For Ukraine, 2026 began with large-scale Russian attacks on the energy system, civilian infrastructure and on civilians themselves. And all this against the backdrop of ongoing talks on a possible "peace deal".
These strikes aim to force Ukraine to capitulate, to accept unfavourable terms to end the war and to wear society down to the point of exhaustion and despair.
This tactic isn't new, but in the winter of 2026, it became especially visible as Ukraine faced cold temperatures not seen for years and Russia deliberately strikes when temperatures drop below zero, to nearly -28 degrees Celsius.
Some aspects of this strategy we have already analysed in detail in Russia's Winter War on Ukraine's Energy and Everyday Life.
UkraineWorld continues to document Russia's deadliest attacks on civilians, as we also did in 2025 and 2024. We focus on those strikes that deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and killed at least ten people, though the actual number of strikes and victims is much higher.
These records show that what happens this year is not a series of tragic mistakes or miscalculations, but a deliberate strategy carried out over the years.
Date: February 1, 2026
Location: near Pavlohrad and Ternivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
Type of attack: Drone strike
Target/damage: A civilian bus transporting miners of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, to work. The vehicle was not a military target and did not carry any military personnel.
Casualties: 12 civilians killed, 16 were wounded.
The DTEK company described the strike as its largest single loss of life since the start of Russia's full-scale war. The timing during winter, amid broader Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy sector, reinforces the pattern of targeting civilians whose work is essential for keeping the country running.
Date: March 7, 2026
Location: Kharkiv
Type of attack: Russian missile strike (reportedly carried out using the newly deployed "Izdeliye-30" missile) aspart of a large-scale overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine.
Target/damage: A five-story residential apartment building was hit directly. One entrance section of the building was destroyed from the first to the fifth floor. Nearby residential buildings, a school and cars were also damaged. The strike occurred at night while residents were asleep, causing extensive structural collapse and fires. Search and rescue teams worked for several days clearing rubble and searching for survivors.
Casualties: 11 civilians were killed, among victims were 2 children. At least 15-16 people were injured, among them several children.
Among the victims were a 7-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl. Local authorities reported that dozens of families were inside the building when the missile struck during the night. Ukrainian officials stated that this strike was part of a broader Russian overnight attack oabout 480 drones and 29 rockets, targeting multiple regions of Ukraine. Beyond the primary target, the blast wave damaged nearly 20 nearby high-rises and an educational institution.
We would like this list to remain short, but it probably will not.
Even as peace is discussed in diplomatic formats, each new attack adds another date, another place, another group of names that should never have been recorded in this way.
This publication was compiled with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. It's content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.
