LONDON — Russian missiles and drones targeted Ukraine overnight, striking civilian infrastructure along with energy facilities, knocking out power for some 550,000 families, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there was “no early warning from our partners” that the missile attack was imminent.
Moscow launched at least 16 ballistic missiles at the capital region, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in a statement. Russia also fired some 200 drones, “including jet-powered Shaheds,” at targets across Ukraine, the ministry said.
“Energy facilities were the main target, but a clinic, a school, a metro station and homes were also hit,” the ministry said. “There are casualties.”
The attacks targeted the Kyiv region, along with several others, including Kharkiv and Dnipro, Zelenskyy said. More than 10 energy infrastructure facilities were damaged, he said, adding that repair crews had been dispatched to the sites.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the military’s “massive” overnight strike targeted sites associated with the Ukrainian defense industry, saying it had hit “facilities storing cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles” and a data center in the Kyiv region.
The Russian attack on energy sites follows a massive Ukrainian attack over the weekend, which similarly targeted energy and oil and gas infrastructure in Russia.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said early on Sunday that it had shot down some 1,015 drones near Moscow and several other western regions, making the attack one of the largest of the war.
Drones struck a major oil terminal in St. Petersburg, along with other targets throughout western Russia, officials in Moscow said on Sunday.
Russia has continued to heavily target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure without pause despite Trump’s declaring the two sides had agreed to the “ceasefire” last weekend.
Zelenskyy on Monday said Putin’s Russia was the driving force behind the war, not Ukraine. As ceasefire proposals have periodically been presented, Kyiv has been receptive to negotiations for each one, Zelenskyy said, but “Russia’s response, time and again, has been ballistic missiles, ‘shaheds,’ and killings.”
“Putin not only doesn’t want to end this war — he doesn’t even want to take any steps toward de-escalation,” Zelenskyy said. “EVERY ONE of our partners has experienced this firsthand when they heard Russia’s refusals. And it is crucial to call things what they are. To call the aggressor an aggressor and help Ukraine defend lives.”
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