Russia launches new ‘massive’ attack, says Kyiv

Ukraine yesterday said Russia had launched a "massive" overnight attack on energy infrastructure in the west and south, adding that at least seven people died from Moscow strikes elsewhere.

Russia launched 16 cruise missiles from land, sea and air as well as 13 attack drones, aiming at energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine's military said.

Air defences downed all but four of them, it added.

Russia's defence ministry said that its troops "carried out a group strike with long-range high-precision weaponry from air and sea and also drones on Ukrainian energy facilities that power arms production".

It said it also targeted warehouses containing munitions and "air-launched weapons provided to the Ukrainian military by western countries".

"All the set targets were hit," the ministry said, calling its latest attacks retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on its own energy network.

The Ukrainian energy ministry said this was Russia's "eighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities" in the past three months, targeting the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west.

"Equipment at (operator) Ukrenergo facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions was damaged," the ministry said.

Ukrenergo said that two employees were wounded and hospitalised in Zaporizhzhia, where Europe's biggest nuclear plant is located.

More than two years into the Russian invasion, targeted missile and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine's electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from the European Union.

Ukrenergo said outages across the country would start earlier than usual yesterday due to damage from the attacks.

Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of the western Lviv region, said Russia "launched a missile attack on a critical energy infrastructure facility", sparking a fire that was later extinguished.

Ukrainian troops based in the west shot down seven out of 10 cruise missiles fired by Moscow, the Lviv regional governor said.

DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, said Thursday that strikes caused "serious damage" at one of its plants.

DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko warned that Ukraine "faces a serious crisis this winter" if the country's Western allies do not provide military aid to defend the energy network.

Front-line clashes were ongoing yesterday in the area near the town of Pokrovsk, northwest of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, where Moscow is trying to break through Ukraine's defences, Kyiv's military said.

Russia's defence ministry said troops had improved positions in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions and northeastern Kharkiv region.

Russia's defence ministry said it had hit 340 Ukrainian targets over the past day.

The head of Russian authorities in the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk and the nearby town of Gorlivka had come under heavy attack from Ukraine.