Russia launches biggest attack in weeks, hits Ukraine's energy infrastructure

In what officials said seemed to be the opening salvo of a new air campaign on the Ukrainian power infrastructure, Russia launched its largest missile attack in weeks throughout Ukraine on Thursday, hammering energy facilities.

Five Ukrainian areas in the west, centre, and east reported power outages, bringing back memories of the numerous airstrikes on vital infrastructure that resulted in widespread outages for millions of Ukrainians last winter during the brutal cold.

Officials said that at least 18 people, including a 9-year-old child, were injured in the airstrikes, and a regional governor reported that two people were killed in separate overnight Russian shelling.

“Winter is coming. Tonight (Russia) renews missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk wrote on platform X.

It was the first Russian attack on electricity infrastructure in six months, according to grid operator Ukrenergo, which also reported damage to facilities in the western and central regions.

“There were partial blackouts in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions,” it said on Telegram messenger.

After strikes last winter severely damaged nearly half of the nation’s energy system and forced grid operators to impose frequent rolling power outages, Ukraine has been rushing for months to repair its infrastructure.

Although Ukraine now has improved air defences from the West, guarding against assaults in such a large country remains a tremendous task.

Since mid-July, Russia, which invaded Ukraine with tens of thousands of troops in February 2022, has targeted port and grain infrastructure with airstrikes, making it more difficult for Kyiv, a major producer of grains worldwide, to export food.

Despite Moscow’s denials, many of the attacks also resulted in the deaths of civilians.

Following the U.N. General Assembly, when the Ukrainian president sought to increase support for his country, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is visiting the United States for discussions. Russia made no comments in response to the fresh airstrikes.

As Kiev continues its counteroffensive, Moscow claims that Ukraine has been bombing Russian targets and that Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea overnight.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, reported that 36 of the 43 cruise missiles that Russia fired against targets overnight had been intercepted by Ukrainian air defences.

Seven people, including a nine-year-old child, were hurt in the capital, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. He said that missile debris damaged multiple non-residential structures, an infrastructure facility, and caused a fire in the heart of the city.

In Cherkasy, a city in central Ukraine, a hotel and several retail kiosks were damaged, according to interior minister Ihor Klymenko, who also reported seven injuries.

The fire was raging when rescuers carried out an injured man on a stretcher in the video that the emergency services uploaded on Telegram.

Blasts were recorded in the areas of Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskiy, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk by the interior ministry and local authorities.

Three Russian missiles reportedly struck Drohobych in the west, roughly 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Polish border, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional governor of Lviv. An infrastructure facility and warehouses, according to Kozytskiy, were attacked.

Russian bombardment of a dormitory in the southern city of Kherson during a separate midnight attack resulted in the deaths of two individuals, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

According to a Ukrainian intelligence source, overnight attacks by the SBU security service and the navy of Ukraine caused “serious damage” to the Saky air base in Russian-occupied Crimea.

In addition to three more drones over other regions of Russia, the Russian military claimed to have shot down 19 Ukrainian drones over the Crimea and the Black Sea. No specifics about any casualties or damage were provided.

(With agency inputs)