Russia unleashes massive airstrikes in Ukraine, damaging critical infrastructure – National
Russia launched its biggest wave of airstrikes in Ukraine in nearly three months on Sunday, firing 120 missiles and 90 drones in a massive attack that killed at least seven people and caused “significant damage” to the power system, officials said.
Ukrainians have been bracing for weeks for an attack on the power grid, fearing damage that could cause prolonged blackouts as winter sets in and increase psychological pressure at a critical time in the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
The strikes, which caused power outages in many regions, came after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election this month, and his promise to end the war without saying how has raised hopes for talks.
“Russia has launched a massive air attack: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping citizens, important infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in X.
Air defenses could be heard including drones over the capital during the night, and a series of powerful explosions rang out in the center of the city as missile attacks continued in the morning.
Kyiv's air force said troops destroyed 104 of 120 missiles and 42 of 90 drones launched by Russia.
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Russia's Defense Ministry said it launched a major strike on power plants that supply Ukraine's military and industrial facilities.
“Heavy damage to Ukraine's power system, including DTEK power stations. This attack also highlights Ukraine's need for additional air defense systems from our partners,” said Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company.
After repeated Russian attacks on the power grid, officials revealed little about the state of the energy infrastructure and rarely released detailed information on the results of the strikes.
Officials confirmed damage to “critical infrastructure” or reported power outages in regions ranging from Volyn, Rivne, Lviv in the west to the southeastern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia. DTEK decided on an emergency power cut in the southern region of Odesa on the order of the energy officials.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that “a large-scale coordinated attack was aimed at all regions of Ukraine”.
In Mykolaiv in the south, two people were killed in an overnight attack, the governor said. Two people were killed and three were injured in a strike at a railway depot in Dnipropetrovsk region, railway officials said.
In the region of Lviv, on the border with Poland, a woman who was in a car was killed, the governor said. Two more people were killed in Odesa region.
In Kyiv, the roof of an apartment building caught fire due to falling debris and at least two people were injured, city officials said on the Telegram messaging app.
A major wave of strikes has taken place as the war approaches this week's 1,000th anniversary of the total invasion of Russia.
Russia last carried out a major missile strike in Kyiv on August 26, when officials said it shot down more than 200 drones and missiles across the country, killing seven people.
NATO member Poland, which borders Ukraine to the west, said it had evacuated its air force inside its aircraft as a precaution during the attack, which it said used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.
Russia's offensive is piling pressure on Ukraine as Moscow's military is making rapid gains on the eastern battlefield since 2022 in its bid to capture the entire industrial region of Donbas despite heavy losses, according to Kyiv and the West.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are trying to hold on to territory they seized in Russia's Kursk region in August, something Kyiv has said could serve as a bargaining chip.
Sybiha said the strike appeared to be Moscow's “true response” to leaders allied with President Vladimir Putin, which appeared to be a reversal of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.
Although Scholz has urged Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine, where he occupies a fifth of the country, Kyiv has backed the call, which he said has reduced the Kremlin leader's isolation.
