At least six people have been killed after Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure and residential targets in Ukraine overnight.
An attack on an apartment building in the city of Dnipro killed two people and injured 12, while three died in Zaporizhzhia.
In total, 25 towns in Ukraine, including the capital kyiv, were affected, leaving many areas without electricity or heating. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram that major energy facilities were damaged in the Poltava, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions and that work was underway to restore power supplies.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its forces had shot down 79 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched more than 450 explosive bomber drones and 45 missiles. Nine missiles and 406 drones were reportedly shot down.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said there were power outages in the Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa and Kirovohrad regions, but restoration work was ongoing.
Svyrydenko said critical infrastructure facilities have already been reconnected and water supply is maintained by generators.
Russia maintains that its attacks on energy targets are directed at the Ukrainian military.
Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter are now a familiar part of this war. But ministers in kyiv are deeply concerned that Moscow is not only trying to damage the morale of Ukraine’s people, but also cripple its economy by collapsing its energy grid.
Analysts say this fourth winter of Russia’s large-scale invasion will be a significant test of Ukraine’s defensive capabilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed there should be “no exceptions” to Western sanctions on Russian energy as a way to pressure Moscow.
The missile attacks came just hours after the United States granted Hungary a one-year exemption from restrictions on buying oil and gas from Russia.
In October, the United States blacklisted two of Russia’s largest oil companies, threatening sanctions against those who buy from them.
But on Friday, during a visit to Washington by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close personal and political ally of Donald Trump, the US president announced the exemption for Budapest.
In a message on Telegram, Zelensky said the overnight attacks showed that “pressure must be intensified” on Russia.
He said that “for every (one of) Moscow’s attacks on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all of Russian energy, without exceptions.”
He said Ukraine was waiting for “relevant decisions from the United States, Europe and the G7.”
