Russia launched around 120 missiles and 90 drones in a "massive" combined air strike on Ukraine's energy infrastructure that killed at least seven people, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
Ukrainians had been bracing for weeks for a renewed Russian attack on an already hobbled energy system, fearing long winter blackouts and mounting psychological pressure almost 1,000 days after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.
The attack early on Sunday marked Russia’s largest air strike on Ukraine in almost three months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said various types of drones were deployed, including Iranian-made Shaheds, as well as cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles in a large-scale attack across the country.
Ukrainian defence forces shot down 140 air targets, Mr Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram.
"The enemy's target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky said.
“Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children.”
Authorities later revised this death toll, saying at least seven people had been killed in the attack, in the regions of Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk.
Explosions were heard across Ukraine during the missile attack on Sunday, including in the capital, Kyiv, the key southern port of Odesa, and the country's west and central regions, according to local reports.
In Kyiv, residents huddled in underground metro stations, wrapped in winter coats.
Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private power company, said there had been “severe damage to Ukraine's energy system, including to DTEK power stations”.
“These attacks again highlight Ukraine's need for additional air defence systems from our allies," he said.
Officials confirmed damage to "critical infrastructure" or power cuts in regions from Volyn, Rivne, Lviv in the west to Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast.
Russia's defence ministry said it had launched a massive strike on energy facilities that supply Ukraine's military-industrial complex.
“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure”, Kyiv's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine's power infrastructure since Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts.
Ukrainian officials have routinely urged western allies to bolster the country's air defences to counter assaults and allow for repairs.
The operational command of Poland's armed forces wrote on X that Polish and allied aircraft, including fighter jets, have been mobilised in Polish airspace because of the "massive" Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine. The steps were aimed to provide safety in Poland's border areas, it said.
One person was injured after the roof of a five-storey residential building caught fire in Kyiv's historic centre, according to Mr Popko.
At least two people were killed and six were wounded, including two children, in the eastern city of Mykolaiv, according to local governor Vitalii Kim.
He described the strike as Moscow's "true response" to leaders who had interacted with President Vladimir Putin, an apparent swipe at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made a phone call to the Russian leader on Friday for the first time since late 2022.
