KYIV—During Monday's morning rush hour, Russia launched over 100 missiles and about 100 attack drones into Ukraine, destroying energy infrastructure all around the country and killing at least five people, according to authorities.
Many locations, including sections of Kyiv, experienced power outages and water supply disruptions. According to officials, the attack targeted at least ten areas' vital infrastructure, including electricity and water supplies.
Russia launched its most intense missile and drone volley in weeks on Monday, coinciding with Ukraine seizing further territory in a significant cross-border incursion into Russia's southern Kursk area and Russian soldiers advancing rapidly in eastern Ukraine, encroaching on Pokrovsk, the country's transportation center.
“It was one of the biggest combined strikes. More than a hundred missiles of various types and about a hundred Shahed drones. And like most previous Russian strikes, this one is just as sneaky, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister, stated that damage had been inflicted in fifteen districts. The energy sector has suffered "a lot of damage," according to Zelenskyy.
Prominent Kyiv officials pleaded for Russia to accept long-range strikes.
Although Ukraine didn't have any potent long-range weaponry when the conflict began, it has subsequently created a variety of long-range attack drone types and used them to strike targets within Russia, such as military airfields and oil refineries.
According to the Russian defense ministry, which was reported by the Interfax news agency, on Monday, Russian forces attacked crucial Ukrainian energy infrastructure with highly precise weaponry in order to sustain the military-industrial complex.
Following Russia's missile and drone attack on western parts of Ukraine that border Poland, the Polish military confirmed that both its planes and those of its allies had been placed on alert.
Rivne and Volyn in the northwest, Khmelnytsk in the southwest, Zhytomyr in the north, Lviv in the west, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, and Odesa in the south were among the areas with targeted electricity or key infrastructure.
According to authorities, at least seven of those districts had damaged or destroyed facilities.
There have been minor power network outages recorded in neighboring Moldova, whose system is connected to Ukraine's.
Authorities reported that a railway infrastructure facility had been targeted in the northeastern Sumy area, from which Ukraine initiated its invasion into Russia on August 6. However, they did not specify which site or provide any other information.
At least five individuals have been confirmed deceased, including a 69-year-old man from the Dnipropetrovsk area, according to local officials. The others were in the Volyn, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, and Zaporizhzhia areas.
A damaged apartment complex was reported by the mayor of Lutsk following reports of explosions.
Along with the blasts, downtown Kyiv was shaken, and air defenses could be heard battling approaching targets outside of the city.
According to the air force, Russia attacked on Monday using a combination of various weapons and 11 TU-95 strategic bombers.
For a while now, Ukrainians have been anticipating a significant Russian missile strike. The U.S. embassy alerted the country last week of a higher danger of assault on Saturday, which was Ukrainian Independence Day.
The chief of Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram that about fifteen missiles and fifteen drones that were aimed against the city's capital were shot down.
Russia and Ukraine refute any intentional targeting of civilians. Both claim that the goal of their strikes is to damage vital infrastructure needed for the other's war effort.
