Russia fires huge missile, drone salvo at Ukraine’s power grid

kyiv: Russia launched around 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine on Monday, killing five people and attacking energy facilities across the country, kyiv said, while neighbouring Ukraine NATO Member Poland reported that a drone had probably entered its airspace.

Power and water outages were reported in many areas, including parts of kyiv, while officials said the attack, two and a half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, targeted power or other critical infrastructure in at least 10 regions.

Russia dramatically stepped up its attacks on the Ukraine’s power grid in March, in what kyiv has called a concerted effort to downgrade the system ahead of the coming winter, when people need more electricity and heating.

Monday’s missile and drone salvo was Russia’s most intense in weeks, and came as Ukraine is gaining new ground in a major cross-border incursion into southern Russia. Kursk region As Russian forces slowly advance in eastern Ukraine, approaching the transport hub of Pokrovskoe.

“It was one of the largest combined attacks. More than a hundred missiles of various types and around a hundred Shahed drones. And like most previous Russian attacks, this one is just as stealthy, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.

Poland said an “object” had entered its airspace, which may have landed on Polish territory and that searches were underway. “Most likely it was a drone and we assume that, because the flight path and speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile,” Jacek Goryszewski, spokesman for the Polish military’s operational command, told Reuters. According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, 15 Ukrainian regions were damaged by the missile and drone bombardment. Zelenskiy said the energy sector had suffered “a lot of damage.”

Senior officials in kyiv urged Western allies and arms suppliers to allow long-range strikes against Russia. Zelenskiy also doubled down on his call for allies such as Poland to join Ukraine in shooting down missiles and drones over Ukrainian airspace.

Ukraine did not have powerful long-range weapons at the start of the invasion, but has since developed many models of long-range attack drones and used them to attack targets deep inside Russia, from oil refineries to military airfields.

Over the weekend, Zelenskiy said Ukraine had developed a new “unmanned missile” that had been used to attack Russia and that it was more powerful and faster than other hardware in kyiv’s arsenal.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday its forces used high-precision weapons to target important energy infrastructure in Ukraine that it said supported the military-industrial complex. It listed electrical substations, gas compression stations and aircraft weapons storage sites.

DAMAGE CONFIRMED
Regions reporting attacks on power sources or critical infrastructure included Rivne and Volyn in the northwest, Khmelnytsk in the southwest, Zhytomyr in the north, Lviv in the west, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Odesa in the south.

Neighbouring Moldova, whose power grid is connected to Ukraine’s, reported minor disruptions to its power grid.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said a hydroelectric plant in the Kiev region had also been attacked. A video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed a damaged dam and a fire after an apparent attack on a hydroelectric plant. Another clip, also verified, showed a missile hitting a water reservoir.

kyiv region governor Ruslan Kravchenko said in televised comments that there was no critical damage to the dam.

In the northeastern region of Sumy, from where Ukraine launched its incursion into Russia on August 6, officials said a railway infrastructure facility had been attacked, but did not say which one or give further details.

The five people who died included a 69-year-old man from the Dnipropetrovsk region and another from the Zaporizhia region, local authorities said. The others were in the Kharkiv, Zhitomir and Volyn regions.

In Lutsk, an apartment building was damaged, the mayor said after reporting on the explosions.

Explosions also rocked central kyiv and air defences could be heard attacking targets on the outskirts of the capital.

The air force said Russia used 11 TU-95 strategic bombers during Monday’s attack, as well as other weapons.

According to Serhiy Popko, head of the kyiv military administration, some 15 missiles and nearly 20 drones targeting the capital, kyiv, were shot down.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians. Both countries say their strikes are aimed at destroying infrastructure critical to the other’s war effort.