Russia launched its largest wave of air strikes on Ukraine in nearly three months on Sunday, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones in a sweeping attack that killed at least seven people and caused “severe damage” to the power system, officials said.
Ukrainians have been preparing for weeks for an attack on their struggling energy system, fearing massive damage that would cause prolonged power outages as winter sets in and heightening psychological pressure at a critical moment in the war Russia launched in February 2022.
The strikes, which led to emergency power outages in many areas, came after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election this month, whose pledge to end the war without explaining how raised the possibility of an imminent push for negotiations.
“Russia launched one of the largest air strikes: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, and vital infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Andrej Sepha wrote on X.
Air defenses could be heard engaging drones over the capital at night, and a series of powerful explosions rang out in the city center as the missile attack was underway in the morning.
The air force in Kiev said the army destroyed 104 out of 120 missiles it fired and 42 out of 90 drones launched by Russia.
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The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a large-scale strike on energy facilities supplying the military-industrial complex in Ukraine.
“Ukraine’s energy system, including DTEK power plants, has been severely damaged. These attacks once again highlight Ukraine’s need for additional air defense systems from “Our allies.”
After repeated Russian attacks on the power grid, officials reveal little about the state of the energy infrastructure, and rarely publish detailed information about the results of the strikes.
Officials confirmed damage to “critical infrastructure” or power outages in areas stretching from Volyn, Rivne and Lviv in the west to the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions in the country’s southeast. DTEK imposed an emergency power outage in the southern Odessa region by order of energy officials.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “The massive joint attack targeted all regions of Ukraine.”
The governor said that two people were killed in Mykolaiv, in the south of the country, in a drone attack overnight. Two people were killed and three others were injured in an attack on a railway depot in the Dnipropetrovsk region, railway authorities said.
The governor said that a woman was killed in the Lviv region on the border with Poland. Two more people were killed in the Odessa region.
In Kiev, the roof of an apartment building caught fire due to falling debris, and at least two people were injured, city officials said via the messaging app Telegram.
The massive wave of strikes occurred as the war this week approached the 1,000th day since the full-scale Russian invasion.
The last time Russia launched a major missile strike on Kiev was on August 26, when officials said it launched a barrage of more than 200 drones and missiles across the country, killing seven people.
Poland, a member of NATO, which borders Ukraine to the west, said it brought its air force into its airspace as a precautionary security measure during the attack, which it said used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.
The Russian offensive is increasing pressure on Ukraine as Russian forces make their fastest battlefield gains in the east since 2022 in their attempt to seize the entire Donbass industrial region despite suffering heavy losses, according to Kiev and the West.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are trying to seize control of an area of territory they captured in Russia’s Kursk region in August, something Kiev said could serve as a bargaining chip in the future.
Sabiha said the strike appeared to be Moscow’s “real response” to the leaders’ interaction with President Vladimir Putin, an apparent criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.
Although Schulz urged Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine, where it occupies a fifth of the country’s area, Kiev was angered by the fact of the call, which it said reduced the isolation of the Kremlin leader.
