Russia launches ‘massive’ strike on Ukraine, says Zelenskyy
Russia has launched a “massive” air strike on Ukraine’s energy system in the early hours of Sunday morning, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have fired about 120 missiles and 90 drones, Reuters reported.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defences had downed about 140 of them.
Two people were killed in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, by a drone attack. Six others were injured, including two children.
“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from strikes and falling debris,” he said in a statement on social media.
The statement in full, posted on X, is here:
A massive combined attack targeted all regions of Ukraine. Overnight and this morning, Russian terrorists used various types of drones, including Shaheds, as well as cruise, ballistic, and aeroballistic missiles – Zircons, Iskanders, and Kinzhals. In total, approximately 120 missiles and 90 drones were launched. Our air defense forces destroyed over 140 aerial targets.
The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Unfortunately, some facilities sustained damage from direct hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, a drone attack killed two people and injured six others, including two children. My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. As of now, some areas remain without power, but all necessary forces are working to mitigate the consequences and restore the infrastructure.
We am grateful to all our air defense units that participated in repelling this attack: anti-aircraft missile forces, our aviation – pilots of F16s, Su aircraft, and MiGs, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units – all worked together in an organized and coordinated manner. I thank them for their reliable protection.
Key events
The exiled Russian opposition will hold its first major demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine, in Berlin on Sunday afternoon.
The Russian opposition lost its main figurehead in February, when Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny died in an Arctic prison in mysterious circumstances.
Yulia Navalnaya, his widow who took the helm of the movement, is one of the main organisers of the march, according to Agence France-Presse.
Unable to operate at home, the opposition is forced to relaunch abroad, where hundreds of thousands of Russians fled in the aftermath of the February 2022 invasion.
The march will take place in Berlin, which is home to thousands of anti-Putin Russians and Ukrainian refugees.
It is due to begin at 1pm in central Berlin and will end outside the Russian embassy.
Navalnaya is joining forces with two other oppositionists for the rally: former Moscow city councillor and longtime anti-Putin campaigner Ilya Yashin and British-Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who survived two poisoning attempts.
Both Yashin and Kara-Murza were freed from prison – where they served sentences for denouncing the Ukrainian invasion – after a prisoner swap with the West this summer.
“The march aims to unite everyone who stands against Vladimir Putin’s aggressive war in Ukraine and political repressions in Russia,” the organisers said in a statement.
The opposition says it has three main demands: the “immediate withdrawal” of troops from Ukraine, the trial of Putin as a “war criminal” and the liberation of all political prisoners in Russia.
The Kremlin, which has painted oppositionists as traitors, has dismissed the march as insignificant.
Its spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the march organisers “monstrously detached from their country” and said “their opinion has no importance”.
Ukrainian air defences destroyed 102 missiles and 42 drones launched by Russia during its latest overnight airstrike, Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday.
According to Reuters, it said that Russian forces had launched a total of 120 missiles of various types, including hypersonic ones, and 90 drones across Ukraine.
Seven reported dead in Russian strikes on Ukraine
Some more details from the air strikes overnight on Ukraine, as further casualty figures have been released.
Two people were killed in an attack on a rail depot in the Dnipropetrovsk region of central Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile in Lviv, near the border with Poland, a woman in a car was killed by the attack according to the region’s governor.
Another two people were also killed in the southern Odesa area.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had already announced that two people had died in the southern Mykolaiv region during the barrage from Russia.
Here are some photos of the aftermath of the airstrikes in Ukraine overnight.
Another 1,640 Russia troops were killed in the last 24 hours, the Ukrainian armed forces have announced.
According to the daily statistics, which have not been verified by the Guardian, about 720,880 Russian personnel have been killed since the invasion on February 2022.
This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.
Additionally, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have destroyed another 12 Tanks, and 60 drones.
Emergency power outages in Kyiv and other regions
Emergency power outages are in place in parts of Ukraine after the strikes, the private energy provider DTEK has said.
“Emergency power cuts in Kyiv, in the Kyiv region, in the Donetsk region, in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” DTEK wrote on social media platform Telegram.
Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said on Telegram that “a massive attack on our energy system is ongoing” and that Russian forces were “attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said it was an attack on “peaceful cities” and criticised politicians engaging with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In a statement posted on X Andrii Sybiha said: “Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure.
“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”
The attacks in the early hours of Sunday morning are the biggest since August.
Russia’s relentless aerial bombardment with missiles and drones has destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy production capacity, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said.
Kyiv has implored its western allies for help in rebuilding its energy grid – a hugely expensive undertaking – and to supply its forces with more aerial defence weapons.
With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls.
A drone crashed into a factory workshop in west-central Russia, causing an explosion and injuring one person, the head of Udmurtia republic said on Sunday.
“There was no serious damage,” Alexander Brechalov said on the Telegram messaging app.
“Unfortunately, one person was injured. He’s been hospitalised – his condition is moderate.”
Blasts could be heard in Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday morning after the aerial attack by Russian forces.
A roof of a residential building in the country’s capital was set alight by the missile and drone strike, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
One woman was taken to hospital after a drone fragment hit another apartment block, he added.
Missiles also hit the regions of Lviv, Volyn, Rivne and Zaporizhzhia, with energy infrastructure the main target.
Poland scrambled aircraft to monitor its borders after the strikes were launched, its air force announced.
Ukraine’s largest private energy provider says that the early morning Russian air strikes on Ukraine’s power infrastructure has “seriously damaged” equipment at thermal power stations.
In a statement on X, DTEK said its employees were working on repairing the equipment, but did not specify what exactly had been hit.
It said it is assessing the extent of the damage and information about casualties.
DTEK added its thermal power plants have been shelled more than 190 times since the start of the conflict in February 2022.
Russia launches ‘massive’ strike on Ukraine, says Zelenskyy
Russia has launched a “massive” air strike on Ukraine’s energy system in the early hours of Sunday morning, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have fired about 120 missiles and 90 drones, Reuters reported.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defences had downed about 140 of them.
Two people were killed in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, by a drone attack. Six others were injured, including two children.
“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from strikes and falling debris,” he said in a statement on social media.
The statement in full, posted on X, is here:
A massive combined attack targeted all regions of Ukraine. Overnight and this morning, Russian terrorists used various types of drones, including Shaheds, as well as cruise, ballistic, and aeroballistic missiles – Zircons, Iskanders, and Kinzhals. In total, approximately 120 missiles and 90 drones were launched. Our air defense forces destroyed over 140 aerial targets.
The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure across Ukraine. Unfortunately, some facilities sustained damage from direct hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, a drone attack killed two people and injured six others, including two children. My deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. As of now, some areas remain without power, but all necessary forces are working to mitigate the consequences and restore the infrastructure.
We am grateful to all our air defense units that participated in repelling this attack: anti-aircraft missile forces, our aviation – pilots of F16s, Su aircraft, and MiGs, mobile fire groups, and electronic warfare units – all worked together in an organized and coordinated manner. I thank them for their reliable protection.
