Russia targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with deadly bombardment

By MARC SANTORA

Russia attacked towns and cities across Ukraine before dawn Sunday in another deadly large-scale missile and drone bombardment that authorities said was aimed in large part at crippling the nation’s energy grid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that about 500 Russian attack drones and 50 missiles were launched overnight. Drones continued to swarm Ukrainian skies throughout the morning and early afternoon Sunday.

At least five people were killed and more were wounded, Zelenskyy said, as authorities warned that the number of killed and injured would most likely rise.

“Today, the Russians once again targeted our infrastructure — everything that ensures normal life for our people,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “We need more protection and faster implementation of all defense agreements, especially on air defense, to deprive this aerial terror of any meaning.”

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, wrote on social media Sunday that Europe would keep supporting Ukraine “as long as needed” against what she described as Russia’s “terror attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.”

Much of the overnight barrage was focused on Lviv, in western Ukraine, where four members of a family were killed when a strike hit a house in a village on the outskirts of the city, according to local authorities. At least three other people were wounded.

As smoke rose over Lviv’s historic downtown, many in the region were left without power as emergency crews raced to repair damage. It was a scene repeated across the vast expanse of the country, with strikes reported in a number of other regions, including Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa and Kirovohrad.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched a total of 496 attack drones and 53 missiles overnight. Of those, 57 drones and 14 missiles evaded air defenses, according to an air force statement.

Many recent attacks have taken aim at Ukraine’s energy grid, the Ministry of Energy said in a statement, knocking out power to large numbers of people. That followed a pattern that has played out every winter since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

At least one person was killed and 73,000 people were left without power in the southern Zaporizhzhia region after strikes there, local authorities said Sunday.

“Emergency repair and restoration work is ongoing to restore electricity as quickly as possible,” the Energy Ministry said.