Russia launches another mass attack on Ukraine, targeting energy facilities across the country
Overnight, Russia launched a massive combined attack against Ukraine using Shahed kamikaze drones and missiles. There were explosions in the west, north, and center of Ukraine, and air defense was operating in the capital of Kyiv, according to reports from the Air Force's official channels, representatives of central and local authorities, and monitoring channels.
The combined attack began around midnight with the Shahed raid. The attack lasted approximately five hours.
In the morning, missiles were added, in particular X-101/X-555/X-55, launched from the Tu-95MS strategic bombers.
Electricity generation and transmission facilities in Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia oblasts were under attack, Minister of Energy German Halushchenko said.
"Energy engineers are already working on eliminating [the consequences]. The enemy wants to deprive us of the ability to sufficiently generate and transmit electricity," the minister said in a Facebook post.
Several strong explosions were heard around 5 a.m. in Kyiv. Serhiy Popko, the head of the city's military administration, said that it was the work of the Air Defense Forces.
"All aerial targets in the area of the capital were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties or damage in the capital," the Kyiv authorities said in a statement.
The mayor of the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, with reference to the rescuers, reported a fire at a civil infrastructure object in one of the settlements of Brovary district.
In Poltava Oblast, a Russian drone hit an energy infrastructure facility. A fire broke out, but there were no casualties. There was a hit to a critical infrastructure facility in Vinnytsia Oblast.
There were also visits to critical and civil infrastructure facilities. "There is damage. So far, there have been no casualties," said Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
Information on the number of air targets launched and shot down will be published later.
Air raid alerts were declared after 6 a.m.
Since March 2024, Russia has carried out four massive strikes on Ukraine's energy system, knocking out up to 8 GW of electricity generation capacity. The previous mass attack took place on April 27, when the Russians launched 34 missiles (21 were shot down).