By Daria Tarasova-Markina and Tim Lister
Ukraine is facing widespread power outages after Russia launched a massive overnight aerial assault across the country, killing at least two people, Ukrainian authorities say.
Nine Ukrainian regions came under attack, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, with the latest assault coming as many were asleep.
Two people were killed and 11 injured by a drone attack that struck a nine-story apartment building in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine. Video captured the moment the drone struck in the darkness.
“There’s nothing here, just ordinary buildings,” said a woman who gave her name as Maia.
“I don’t know how I survived, because all the shrapnel flew onto the bed where I was sleeping,” said Larysa, another resident of the building.
“We gathered quickly and started to go downstairs. People were screaming. You could already hear screams from the street,” she added.
Altogether, ten people have been killed by Russian strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, and nearly 50 injured.
Of the 45 missiles fired, some of which were ballistic weapons, the Ukrainian air force said only nine had been intercepted. Some 450 drones were also launched.
“26 missiles and 52 strike UAVs [drones] have been recorded hitting 25 locations,” it said, with many of the attacks occurring in the central regions of Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk as well as Kyiv.
“The enemy is once again launching massive attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,” said energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk.
Emergency power cuts had been introduced in a number of regions, she added, and would be cancelled when the power system stabilizes.
State gas company Naftogaz said that Friday night’s barrage was the ninth massive attack on civilian gas infrastructure since the beginning of October.
Ukraine’s border crossings were temporarily closed because power cuts affected a customs database, according to the Ukrainian Customs Service.
Russia’s defense ministry said the strikes had come in response to Ukrainian attacks, and had included Kinzhal ballistic missiles and other weapons in strikes against “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and gas and energy facilities of Ukraine that supported their operations.”
Those attacks have seriously damaged Ukrainian gas production and caused extensive power cuts across the country. Ukrainian officials have said they’ll have to turn to expensive imports of European gas to make up the shortfall.
Ukraine is negotiating with its international partners to increase natural gas imports by about 30% as winter approaches, according to Grynchuk.
“Despite the enemy’s plans, Ukraine will have light and heat this winter,” she said Saturday.
“For every strike by Moscow on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” Zelensky said Saturday in a post on X.
Ukraine has requested more help from allies to replenish its air defenses, as well as longer-range missiles to attack Russian energy and military facilities. Its request for US Tomahawk missiles was turned down by President Donald Trump last month.
The Ukrainian military and security services have stepped up drone and missile attacks against Russian refineries and other infrastructure such as pipelines and pumping stations in recent months.
On Saturday, Ukrainian drones carried out what one Russian official described as a “massive attack” on energy facilities in the Volgograd region, a frequent target of Ukraine.
A substation was hit, according to Andrey Bocharov, the regional governor, who said power was restored several hours after the strike.
Source: edition.cnn.com