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Nighttime Russian drone and missile attacks struck across Ukraine, killing at least two people and starting fires on the outskirts of the capital, officials said Tuesday, a day after a heavy barrage that struck energy facilities throughout the country.
Two people died in a strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rihstruck, a mining and industrial city in Ukraine's south, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration.
In the Kyiv region, which had struggled with blackouts after Monday's onslaught, five air alerts were called during the night. The regional administration said air defenses destroyed all the drones and missiles that Russia fired, but that falling debris set off forest fires.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Monday's barrage of more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones as “vile.”
The strikes hit civilian infrastructure and most of the country was targeted, he said.
“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday.
He urged Ukraine’s allies to provide it with long-range weapons and permission 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 the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said. “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”
President Joe Biden called the Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “reprioritized U.S. air defense exports so they are sent to Ukraine first.” He also said the U.S. was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks used “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”
At least four people were killed Monday in the attacks.
In Russia, meanwhile, officials reported four Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Kursk region, where Russian forces are fighting Ukrainian troops that made a surprise incursion this month.
The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant there. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said he would visit the plant Tuesday.
