At least seven people were killed and 19 injured after Russia unleashed its largest airstrike on Ukraine in months, targeting energy infrastructure as overnight temperatures begin to drop below freezing.
Russian forces launched 120 missiles and 90 drones at Ukrainian territory, striking multiple targets on an already damaged energy system and causing widespread power cuts.
Huge blasts rang across the capital of Kyiv as Ukrainian air defences were forced into action, with residents taking shelter in underground metro stations.
Kyiv’s air force said it destroyed 104 of the 120 missiles and 42 Russian drones, but seven people died in the regions of Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk according to Ukrainian authorities. Poland also scrambled its air force as a precaution to help protect its neighbour to the east.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukraine is fighting a regime of “absolute evil”, and which “understands no language but force”.
Writing on X the morning of the attacks, Mr Zelensky said: “Efforts to address the consequences of the combined attack on our infrastructure in the Rivne, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Volyn, and Odesa regions are ongoing.
“Russian terrorists are once again trying to intimidate us with cold and blackouts, repeating their actions and trying to get results from them. We need unity, the world needs unity. Only together can we stop this evil.”
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy provider, suffered “severe damage” to its power stations during the strikes. Maxim Timchenko, the company’s CEO, said the attack highlights “Ukraine’s need for additional air defence systems from our allies”.
Russia’s defence ministry said it launched a major strike on the energy facilities supplying Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.
There is not much information on the scale of the damage to Ukraine’s power grid – a subject on which officials have often remained tight-lipped since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, took a thinly veiled dig at German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who held a widely criticised phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday.
Writing on X following Sunday morning’s attack, Mr Sybiha said: “Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure.
“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”
But Mr Scholz defended his decision to hold the phone call. He told Mr Putin that he “cannot count on support from Germany, Europe and many others in the world waning”.
Donald Trump’s re-election in the United States and his insistence that he will end the war soon will have significant implications for Europe, Mr Scholz said.
“In my view, it would not be a good idea if there were talks between the American and Russian presidents and the leader of an important European country was not also doing so,” he said.
