Russia on Sunday, November 17, pummelled Ukraine with a “massive” aerial barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least nine people across the country in the largest attack in months that Kyiv called “hellish.”
The attack came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the cold winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia launched around 120 missiles and almost 100 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine. Various types of drones were deployed, he said, including Iranian-made Shaheds, as well as cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian defense forces shot down 140 air targets, he said in a statement on Telegram. “The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children,” Zelensky said, accusing Moscow of trying to “intimidate us with cold and blackouts.”
“A hellish night,” the spokesman for Ukraine’s airforce Yuriy Ignat said on social media, saying Kyiv downed “144 targets.”
Explosions were heard across Ukraine on Sunday, including the capital, Kyiv, the key southern port of Odesa, as well as the country’s west and central regions, according to local reports. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was wounded by falling debris from a drone on a residential building.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga echoed the statement that the attacks mainly targeted the country’s energy infrastructure. “Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” Sybiga said following the bombardment.
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Earlier, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Telegram that “a massive attack on our energy system is ongoing” and that Russian forces were “attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine.”
‘Emergency power cuts’
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s energy operator DTEK announced “emergency power cuts” in the Kyiv region and two others in the east after authorities revealed Russia had launched a “massive” aerial attack on the energy grid. “Emergency power cuts in Kyiv, in the Kyiv region, in the Donetsk region, in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” DTEK wrote on social media platform Telegram. A thermal power plant operated by DTEK was “seriously damaged” the company said in a statement on Telegram.
The combined drone and missile attack was the most powerful in three months, according to the head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration Serhii Popko. “The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris. In Mykolaiv, as a result of a drone attack, two people were killed and six others were injured, including two children.”
Russian strikes have hammered Ukraine’s power generation capacity since Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor in February 2022 , prompting repeated emergency power shutdowns and nationwide rolling blackouts. With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls.
Ukrainian officials have routinely urged Western allies to bolster the country’s air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs. Russia’s relentless aerial bombardment with missiles and drones has destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy production capacity, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Poland scrambles jets
Across the border, Poland said it had scrambled fighter jets and mobilised all available forces in response to a “massive” Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine.
“Due to a massive attack by Russia, which is carrying out strikes using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones against sites located, among other places, in western Ukraine, operations by Polish and allied aircraft have begun,” Poland’s Operational Command posted on social media platform X. These measures were “aimed at insuring security in the areas adjacent to the threatened zones.”