LONDON — All areas of Ukraine had been below air raid alerts early Thursday amid Russia’s newest long-range drone and missile barrage towards the nation’s power grid, with nearly 1 million individuals reportedly left with out energy.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Russia launched round 100 drones and greater than 90 missiles into Ukraine, together with projectiles carrying cluster munitions. “Every such assault proves that air protection programs are wanted now in Ukraine, the place they save lives, and never in storage bases,” he added.
“That is particularly necessary within the winter, when now we have to guard our infrastructure from focused Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
Ukraine’s air power mentioned Russia launched 91 missiles, 79 of which it mentioned had been shot down. Russia additionally launched 97 drones, the air power mentioned, of which 35 had been downed and 62 neutralized by way of jamming.
Vitality Minister German Galushchenko wrote in a put up to Fb that the nation’s power community confronted “an enormous blow,” with strikes on infrastructure “all through Ukraine.”
Folks take shelter inside a metro station throughout a Russian assault on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 28, 2024.
Thomas Peter/Reuters
The state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo, Galushchenko added, moved onto emergency energy outage schedules as a result of assaults. Ukrenergo mentioned on Telegram that the assault was the eleventh mixed missile and drone assault on power infrastructure in 2024 thus far.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on X that Kyiv “awoke to air raid sirens and from the bunker we see the entire nation is purple from the specter of missiles from Russia as Ukraine’s power infrastructure is at the moment below assault.”
Town’s army administration reported “a mixed missile and drone strike on Kyiv utilizing, presumably, cruise missiles and drones of varied sorts.”
The alert within the capital lasted for greater than 9 hours, the administration mentioned. “All missiles and drones that threatened Kyiv had been destroyed,” it added in a put up to Telegram.
Energy and water interruptions had been reported in a number of areas of Ukraine, with explosions reported by native administrations throughout the nation.
Maxim Kozitsky, the pinnacle of the Lviv army administration within the west of the nation bordering Poland, mentioned on Telegram that 523,000 prospects in Lviv Oblast had been with out electrical energy following the strikes.
Oleksandr Koval, the governor of the western Rivne Oblast, mentioned 681 settlements in area had been with out electrical energy as a consequence of missile assaults with some 280,000 individuals disconnected.
Volyn Oblast Governor Ivan Rudnytskyi reported one other 215,000 individuals with out energy in his area.
The Russian Protection Ministry, in the meantime, reported downing 27 Ukrainian drones over 4 Russian areas, in addition to occupied Crimea.
Andriy Yermakk — the pinnacle of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s workplace — wrote on Telegram that Moscow was utilizing “terror ways.”
“They made stockpiles of missiles for assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure, for conflict with civilians throughout chilly climate, in the course of the winter,” he added. “They had been helped by their loopy allies, specifically from [North Korea].”
“Now the Russians are finishing up a mixed shelling of the nation,” Yermak added. “They even battle with youngsters,” he wrote, warning that Ukraine will reply.
