Seven killed in ‘most massive’ Russian air attack, Ukraine says

Seven killed in ‘most massive’ Russian air attack, Ukraine says

According to the head of the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia has executed one of its largest air assaults on Ukraine to date.

On Monday, missiles and drones targeted over half of Ukraine’s regions, resulting in at least seven deaths and numerous injuries. The attacks disrupted power infrastructure, leading to extensive blackouts and prompting nationwide air raid alerts and shelter advisories.

Russia acknowledged targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure—a strategy it has frequently employed—and claimed success in hitting all intended targets. The missile and drone strikes began late on Monday night and persisted into the morning.

Later in the day, a missile hit a civilian infrastructure building in Kryvyi Rih, an eastern city, killing one woman and leaving five others missing, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the local military administration, who reported on Telegram.

Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine’s air force commander, stated that Russia launched 127 missiles and 109 attack drones overnight and into Monday morning. Ukraine managed to shoot down 102 missiles and 99 drones, as reported on Telegram.

Mr. Oleshchuk called the combined strike “the most massive aerial attack”.

Nato member Poland said an “object” entered its territory during the attack.

“Most likely it was a drone and we assume so, because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was not a missile,” said army spokesman Jacek Goryszewski, quoted by Reuters.

Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah condemned the attacks on Ukraine and said that breaches of Nato airspace by Russia were “irresponsible and potentially dangerous”, the agency said.

Previously, an attack last December when 158 missiles and drones were fired at Ukraine, had been considered the largest attack so far.

While the main target of this attack was energy infrastructure, it was also an attempt by Moscow to strike at Ukraine’s reserves of another key resource: morale.

Ukrainians have been electrified by the recent successful incursion of their troops deep into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

With Monday’s strikes, Russia was intending to bring ordinary people in Ukraine back down to earth with a bump – reminding them, and politicians in Western capitals, that the Kremlin still has the upper hand in this war.

The message from Moscow was make no mistake, Russia can still inflict misery on the Ukrainian population whenever it chooses.

The attacks caused serious damage to infrastructure, with power outages reported in many cities – including Kyiv – and water supplies disrupted.

One of the remaining power stations – a hydroelectric plant north of Kyiv – was one of the latest targets. The damage is still being assessed.

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since early on in its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

In recent months it has renewed its campaign of attacks on the power grid, causing frequent blackouts across the country.

In June, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had destroyed half of his country’s electricity-generating capacity since it began pummelling its energy facilities in late March.

Ukraine is buying energy from the European Union. However, this is not enough and so most days, the country has a planned nationwide blackout to protect critical needs such as hospitals and military sites.

Russia’s defense ministry said it attacked electricity and gas facilities, as well as sites storing Western weapons.

“All designated targets were hit, resulting in power outages and disrupted rail transport of weapons and ammunition to the front line,” it said.

It has been a year of bad news on the battlefield for Kyiv, with Russia gaining ground steadily in the eastern Donbas region.

There have been problems with mobilization and reports that Ukraine is running out of men.

But following Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk, the videos of soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag over Russian villages they had seized gave a badly-needed boost to Ukrainian morale.

And it showed the West that Kyiv is still capable of carrying out complex, daring, and – most importantly – successful offensives.

On Monday, Mr Zelensky called on Western allies including Britain, America, and France to change their rules and let Ukraine use its weapons to strike deeper inside Russia.

Ukraine is allowed to use some Western weapons to hit targets inside Russia – but not long-range weapons.

He said “We could do much more to protect lives” if European air forces worked with Ukraine’s air defence.

Also on Monday, Ukraine tried to attack an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, a city north-east of Moscow, according to the regional governor. No casualties or damage have been reported.

And Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed nine drones over its Saratov region, which is 560 miles (900km) from the Ukrainian border.