From The New York Times:
Summary:
Russia has opened what Ukrainian officials call a new campaign to cripple the country’s energy grid, striking earlier than expected. Before dawn on Wednesday, missiles and drones hit a large thermal power plant and other energy facilities around Kyiv, leaving several neighborhoods without power and water.
Ukrainian officials had warned for months that this winter could be the hardest of the war, but anticipated the first major strike later in the fall, with the onset of cold weather. Russia has run similar campaigns in past years with mixed results, but this time it has stockpiled ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that Ukraine has struggled to intercept.
The article also points to an apparently intercepted Russian plan, shown by Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal to European partners in Paris two weeks ago and later obtained by The New York Times. It reportedly outlines methodical attacks using up to 1,000 missiles, drones, and bombs against substations, hydroelectric and thermal power plants, and boiler houses, with the aim of collapsing the energy system and breaking civilian morale.