Russia carried out a massive overnight assault on Ukraine, firing hundreds of drones and missiles that killed at least three people and struck key energy facilities across three regions, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
According to the Ukrainian air force, Moscow launched 458 drones and 45 missiles in the latest wave of attacks, of which 406 drones and nine missiles were intercepted. The strikes, however, caused extensive damage to power and heating infrastructure, intensifying fears of energy shortages as winter approaches.
“Russian strikes once again targeted people's everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water, and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in a statement.
Ukraine’s energy sector has been under relentless attack in recent months, with Russian forces increasingly focusing on natural gas facilities that provide the country’s main source of heating. Analysts have warned that the continued bombardment could lead to severe heating outages and widespread hardship during the cold season.
Zelenskyy calls for more sanctions
Zelenskyy said the strikes showed that sanctions pressure should be intensified.
”… for every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” he said on the Telegram app.
Since the start of its full-scale assault on Ukraine almost four years ago, Russia has made a point of attacking the power sector as the need for heating grows. This autumn it has attacked gas facilities nine times in the space of two months, according to the state energy firm Naftogaz.
Moscow’s Defence Ministry said it had launched ”a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapon production and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s strikes on Russia.
Russia also said its forces continued to advance in grinding battles around the key towns of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, and had captured a tiny village in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine regularly sends its drones to strike oil facilities inside Russia.
As diplomatic efforts to stop the war have faltered, Kyiv is trying to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance its war.
The Ukrainian air force said 406 Russian drones and nine missiles had been shot down, and 26 Russian missiles and 52 drones had hit 25 sites.
Svyrydenko said the government and energy companies were working to restore damaged electricity, water and heating provision.
In the central Poltava region, two cities – Kremenchuk with a population of about 200,000 people and Horishni Plavni with some 50,000 residents – lost most of their electricity and were using generators to provide water, city officials said.
With inputs from agencies
