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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the “vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics” after it carried out its second big attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure this month, cutting power to at least a million people across three western regions of the country.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 79 missiles and 35 drones overnight as explosions were heard across major Ukrainian cities.
"The target is our energy sector," Zelensky said in a post on Telegram, with the attack involving "about 100 strike drones, more than 90 missiles of different types".
"In several regions, Kalibr [missiles] with cluster munitions were used specifically against civilian infrastructure.
"These cluster munitions make it significantly more difficult for our rescuers and energy workers to eliminate the impact of the strikes, and this is a vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics."
The Ukrainian President added he had spoken to Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the overnight attack, with particular attention paid to “further defence cooperation”.
He said: “I am grateful to Great Britain for its large-scale support, in particular, for its willingness to allocate at least three billion pounds annually for Ukraine's needs.”
Russian President Putin said on Thursday that the overnight attack on Ukrainian infrastructure was a response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian regions using longer-range Western missiles.
Speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, Putin told members of a security alliance made up of ex-Soviet states:
"Tonight we conducted a comprehensive strike using 90 missiles of similar classes and 100 drones. Seventeen targets were hit.
"These are military facilities, defence industry facilities and their support systems. Let me repeat once again: these strikes on our part also took place in response to the ongoing strikes (by Ukraine) on Russian territory with American ATACMS missiles. As I have already said many times, there will always be a response from our side."
Explosions were heard in Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Kharkiv, Rivne and Lutsk on Thursday morning, Ukrainian news outlets Zerkalo Tyzhnya and Suspilne said.
Further explosions could also be heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, although the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said air defences were working on Thursday.
Ukraine's air force previously announced a nationwide alert that warned that Russia had launched seven Tu-95 strategic bombers, the Kyiv Independent reports.
"Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy's massive strike," Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook.
The attacks have added to fears that the Kremlin aims to cripple Ukraine’s power generation capacity before winter.
Ukraine's national grid operator Ukrenergo introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack - the second big attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure this month.
Ukraine's top private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted the capital as well as Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
During the Thursday missile attack on the western Rivne region, governor Oleksandr Koval said 280,000 consumers experienced power cuts. He also reported interruptions in water supply without elaborating on the damage.
The mayor of the western town of Lutsk reported power cuts after several strikes, adding that the services were working to connect water and heating infrastructure to alternative power sources.
Russia previously staged 10 massive attacks on the country's energy infrastructure, which hobbled the system and spurred fears of long power cuts ahead of the winter months.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said a missile strike on the city damaged a business facility and windows in an apartment building.
The missile attack on the northeastern Sumy region targeted infrastructure, regional authorities said.
Debris in Kyiv fell on the territory of a business and dealt minor damage to several buildings and a truck, the Kyiv city military administration said.
The Russian attack "dealt a hard blow, used a lot of cluster munitions", a source in Ukraine's energy industry told Reuters.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, said on Thursday that Russia was deliberately stockpiling weapons, including arms from North Korea, to launch mass attacks on cities and infrastructure.
"They stockpiled missiles for strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, for warfare against civilians during the cold, during the winter," Yermak said.
President Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia had launched more than 800 KAB-guided aerial bombs, nearly 460 attack drones, and more than 20 missiles over the past week.
"The enemy continues to attack Kharkiv with missiles," city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper urged residents to stay in shelter in a separate message.
Around half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been destroyed during the almost three years of war with Russia, and rolling electricity blackouts are common.
In previous winters Russia has tried to deny Ukrainian civilians heating and drinking water supplies.
It has also tried to damage Ukraine’s defence industry, which has been producing missiles, drones and armoured vehicles.
Meanwhile, Russia's air defence systems destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over four regions, its Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
Fourteen of the drones were destroyed over the Krasnodar region, six over the Bryansk region, three over Moscow-annexed Crimea and two over the Rostov region, it said.
Krasnodar's regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, wrote on Telegram that two districts in the southern Russian region were subjected to a "massive drone attack" overnight. One civilian was injured, he said.
A local Telegram channel published footage showing an object crashing into a building in the town of Slavyansk-na-Kubani, followed by a loud boom and fireball. It could not be immediately verified.
