Russia attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with massive wave of drones and missiles, killing 3 people

Kyiv, Ukraine Russia launched a massive drone and missile bombardment across Ukraine On Monday, attacks targeted energy infrastructure, killing at least three people and hitting power facilities in at least three regions. Officials in the Zaporizhia, Rivne and Lviv regions said in messages posted on social media that energy infrastructure had been attacked. Officials in several other regions also reported attacks on energy sites and other critical infrastructure.

The shelling began around midnight and continued after dawn in what appeared to be the largest Russian attack on Ukraine in weeks.

“Energy infrastructure has once again become a target for Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, adding that Ukraine’s state-owned electricity grid operator, Ukrynergo, had to implement emergency power outages to stabilize the system.

Ukraine’s allies have called for Kiev to be provided with long-range weapons and allowed to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which Russian missiles are launched. We are counting on the support of our allies and we will certainly make Russia pay the price,” Shmyhal said.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, several groups of Russian drones flew towards the eastern, northern, southern and central regions of the country, followed by the launch of several ballistic missiles. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were heard in the capital, Kyiv, and electricity and water supplies in the city were disrupted due to the attack.

In the wake of the shelling, the city administration announced plans to open “invincibility points” — shelter-like places where people can charge their devices and get refreshments during power outages. Such points were first opened in Ukraine in the fall of 2022, when Russia targeted the country’s energy infrastructure with weekly bombing.

A multi-storey residential building and an unspecified infrastructure target were hit and one person was killed, said Igor Polishchuk, mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk. Another person was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where the attack sparked multiple fires, damaged dozens of homes and completely destroyed two, said Serhiy Lysak, the region’s head. Lysak said one person was rescued from the rubble.

One person was also killed in the partly occupied southeastern region of Zaporizhia, the head of the region, Ivan Fedorov, said. An infrastructure facility was hit and set on fire, he added.

In the southern Mykolaiv region, three people were injured, the region’s head Vitaly Kim said. He also urged locals to use the “invincible points” in the area.

In the outlying Kyiv region, one person was injured in an attack that hit unspecified infrastructure targets and residential homes, the region’s head, Ruslan Kravchenko, said.

Ukrainian private energy company D-Tec announced emergency power outages, saying in an online statement that “energy workers across the country are working 24/7 to restore light in Ukrainians’ homes.”

In neighboring Poland, the military said Polish and NATO air defenses were activated in the eastern part of the country as a result of the attack.

Meanwhile, officials in Russia reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight and Monday morning.

Four people were injured in the Saratov region of central Russia, where drones struck residential buildings in two cities. Local officials said one drone crashed into a residential tower in Saratov, and another hit a residential building in Engels, home to a military airport that has been previously attacked.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 22 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight and in the morning over eight Russian regions, including the Saratov and Yaroslavl regions in central Russia.