Kyiv has been through another long night. Air raid sirens went off several times, and explosions were heard from different parts of the city for almost two hours. The Russian channel SHOT claims more than 30 powerful detonations rang out and that Russian forces attacked in several waves with "Geran" drones.

According to SHOT, one of the main targets was CHP-6 in the Desnianskyi district - one of the most important combined heat and power plants for the northern and eastern parts of the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv authorities officially confirmed a fire in the Desnianskyi district, but not that the plant itself was hit. The Kyiv military administration said the fire broke out at a non-residential building after drone debris fell. There is no confirmed information on casualties so far, nor a full damage assessment. Moscow speaks of a hit, Kyiv of falling drone debris - and the truth, as usual in this war, will only be known when people see whether the radiators are warm.

Why this particular plant? CHP-6 has an installed electrical capacity of around 500 megawatts and a thermal capacity of approximately 1,740 gigacalories per hour. It helps supply heat and electricity to large parts of Kyiv, including the Desnianskyi, Obolonskyi, Dniprovskyi and Podilskyi districts. Serious damage to the facility would have consequences far beyond the point of impact - especially now, before the heating season.

The attack doesn't come in isolation. In previous days the Southern and Northern bridges over the Dnipro were targeted, and several energy facilities in and around Kyiv have already been hit. Ukrainian energy expert Stanislav Ignatiev warned that Russia's aim may be to cut Kyiv's left bank off from the rest of the energy system - with strikes on power lines, substations and facilities producing electricity and heat.

When the target is a heating plant, not a barracks, the message is addressed to civilians. The ones who will pay the price of such a strategy are not at the front, but in the flats of the Obolonskyi and Desnianskyi districts, before the first frost.

The Balkans know this first-hand. Winters without electricity and heating in the nineties are not a textbook lesson for anyone who lived through them. The question is how many more nights like this Ukraine's capital can endure - and whether anyone at the negotiating tables is even counting the cold radiators.