RUSSIA on Sunday pummelled Ukraine with a “massive” aerial barrage, Ukrainian officials said, killing at least eight people and forcing power cuts with fears of a precarious winter to come.
Hundreds of missiles and drones streaked across Kyiv’s skies as Russia’s invasion dragged past its one thousandth day, leaving more than 20 people wounded as well as the dead and damaging the country’s already beleaguered energy grid.
The strikes came with Ukraine on the retreat against Russia’s soldiers and the support of its main backer the United States thrown into question by the reelection of Donald Trump to the presidency.
Ukraine’s energy operator DTEK on Sunday announced emergency power cuts in the Kyiv region and two regions in the east.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Telegram that Russian forces were “attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine”.
AFP journalists heard explosions in the early morning in Kyiv and close to Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, with Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga calling the strikes “one of the largest air attacks” of the conflict.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit all its targets in a massive attack on “essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.
Russia’s relentless aerial bombardment has destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy production capacity, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Moscow fired 120 missiles and 90 drones at Ukraine, of which 140 were shot down by Kyiv’s air defences, Zelensky said on Sunday.
With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls, while its outmanned and outgunned forces have been steadily ceding ground to the Kremlin’s troops for weeks.
Kyiv has implored its Western allies for help to rebuild its energy grid — a hugely expensive undertaking — and to supply its outgunned forces with more aerial defence weapons.
But many in Ukraine fear that Western help will not be as freely given following the imminent return of Trump to the White House in January.
The Republican president-elect has frequently questioned the United States’ backing for Ukraine, and campaigned with the promise of cutting a quick deal to end the war.