Blasts shake key Ukraine cities, infrastructure in ‘massive’ Russian missile attack

November 17, 2024 journo

Blasts shook Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other cities while neighbouring Poland scrambled its air force early on Sunday after the two countries said a Russian missile attack was under way.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia launched 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine, targeting its energy infrastructure.

Mr Zelenskyy said Russia deployed various types of drones, including Shaheds, cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles.

Ukrainian defence forces shot down 140 air targets, he said in a statement on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry confirmed it had launched a massive attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, saying the facilities supply the country’s military-industrial complex, Russian news agencies reported.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed 102 missiles and 42 drones during the overnight attack, Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday.

The combined drone and missile attack was the most powerful in three months, according to the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration Serhii Popko.

“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,” he said.

“Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children.”

Blasts were heard in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia and the Black Sea port of Odesa, Reuters witnesses said, and Ukraine’s air force issued air raid alerts for all of the country, although the scale of the attack was unclear.

The air force urged residents to take cover and said a number of missiles, including different types of cruise missile, were flying through Ukrainian air space.

Russia’s early morning air strike on Ukraine “seriously damaged” equipment at thermal power stations belonging to the country’s largest private energy provider, the company said on Sunday.

In a statement on social media, DTEK said its employees were working on repairing the equipment, but did not specify what exactly had been hit.

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The operational command of NATO member Poland’s armed forces posted on X that Polish and allied aircraft “have started operating in our airspace” after the “massive attack” in western Ukraine.

It said it had “activated all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness”.

Russia’s missile attack targeted power infrastructure across Ukraine, forcing the launch of preventive outages, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Sunday.

“Another massive attack on the power system is taking place,” Mr Galushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The missile attack followed an overnight drone strike on Ukraine’s capital.

The roof of a residential building caught fire due to falling debris and at least one person was injured, city officials said on the Telegram messaging app.

“Emergency services were dispatched to the scene,” Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Ukraine has been on alert for weeks, fearing a major Russian missile attack as winter sets in.

Previous attacks have targeted the power grid and caused sweeping blackouts.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, regional governor of the Russian border region Belgorod, said on Sunday that a Ukranian attack there had killed one civilian.

One other person was killed and two injured in a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s Kursk region on Sunday, regional governor Alexei Smirnov added.

Reuters