Russian forces launched a barrage of drone and missile attacks aimed at energy infrastructure across Ukraine overnight, killing at least three people, as Ukrainian officials reported power outages in several cities.
Ukraine’s air force on Monday said it detected dozens of missiles and drones targeting almost all regions of the country, including the capital Kyiv and the southern port city of Odesa.
Fatalities were reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Volyn regions, according to Ukrainian authorities. At least five people were injured in the central Poltava region when an industrial facility was hit, according to its regional military chief.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday at least 15 regions were impacted by what he called a “massive Russian attack” targeting energy infrastructure.
The country’s national energy company, Ukrenergo, has implemented emergency power cuts to stabilize the system, he said on Telegram. Power outages have been recorded in several cities, including Kyiv and Dnipro, following the attacks, according to Serhii Kovalenko, CEO at Yasno energy company.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said “the energy sector is in the crosshairs” and the extent of the damage was being investigated.
In Kyiv, the head of the city military administration said air defenses were working in the region and the outskirts of the capital and advised people to stay in shelters.
In Kharkiv, emergency services were working at an undisclosed number of sites targeted in the attacks, according to its regional military head.
The widespread aerial assault comes two days after a Russian strike on a hotel in the Donetsk region killed a British safety adviser and wounded two journalists.
Ryan Evans, a former soldier, had been working with Reuters since 2022 and advised its journalists on safety around the world including in Ukraine, Israel and at the Paris Olympics, the news agency said.
Residents without power
Lights were out in many parts of Kyiv Monday morning, with residents saying they lost power after hearing several loud explosions.
She had recently left the city with her child to avoid shelling and is now living without power or water on the capital’s outskirts.
“The explosions were so powerful that the house was shaking and the windows were shaking,” she said. “After four or five explosions, my husband and I decided to wake up the baby and go outside. Since the house was not new and there was no shelter or cellar to hide in, it was not safe to stay inside, because of the shrapnel from the windows.”
Anna, who lives on the right bank of Kyiv, woke up to an air-raid alarm followed by explosions.
“The bulk of the missiles were shot down in the region, but even from there I could hear the sounds of explosions and the work of the air defense. My friends from other parts of the city wrote that their electricity and water were cut off,” she said.
Russia says it shot down drones
The latest Russian bombardment also comes as Ukrainian forces occupy a pocket of Russian territory in the border region of Kursk and as Kyiv carries out its own aerial attacks on targets deep inside Russia.
On Monday, Russia said its air defenses destroyed 20 drones launched from Ukraine overnight, including nine over the Saratov region, three over Kursk and two each over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions.
On Sunday, Belgorod’s governor said five civilians were killed and 12 others wounded in shelling.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said his forces have advanced up to 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) in Kursk and taken control of two more settlements.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russian ground forces are inching toward the key eastern city of Pokrovsk, which could become the next major battleground of the war.
Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his goal is to seize all of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Pokrovsk sits on a key supply road that connects it with other military hubs and forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk that is still under Kyiv’s control.
In his address Sunday, Zelensky said that in Donetsk, “The most attention is on Novohrodivka and Vodiane, where the assaults are most intense. I am grateful to all our units for their resilience.”