KYIV, Ukraine — Russia pressed its missile and drone barrage of Ukraine, killing seven people, including a child, while mainly targeting the power grid, officials said Wednesday.
Moscow’s steep escalation of its aerial campaign since the end of August is putting pressure on Ukraine as it braces for winter, when Russia regularly bombards energy facilities to deny Ukrainians heat, power and running water.
The heavy overnight attack caused power outages and prompted questions about whether it marked the start of Russia’s anticipated cold weather campaign, which Ukrainian officials describe as an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
“There has been virtually no day since summer when the enemy did not attack energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said on Telegram. “But such a massive and combined attack happened for the first time since the end of the last heating season.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted the increase in Russian strikes has brought “days of almost uninterrupted air raid alerts across Ukraine.”
“Russia is intensifying its terror: jet-powered drones during the day, ballistic and cruise missiles at night, constant attacks against our cities and civilian life,” Sybiha said on X.
Ukrainian officials say Moscow is not engaging with U.S. efforts to halt the fighting, 4½ years after Russia invaded its neighbor. Moscow says it wants a comprehensive settlement rather than a temporary truce, but its demand for Ukraine to surrender land is unacceptable for Kyiv.
Russia exploits Ukraine’s air defense gaps
Nationwide, the Russian attacks killed seven Ukrainian civilians and wounded 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, without providing details.
A boy was killed in an attack on a private home in Vyshhorod, a city in the wider Kyiv region, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration. Three other people were rescued from the rubble, he added.
Three other people were killed by attacks in the capital, with four injured, according to authorities.
Russia fired 2,850 jet-propelled drones at Ukraine in August but by Tuesday it had already launched 3,177 this month, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said.
Russia has exploited gaps in Ukrainian air defenses by firing ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones, both of which are hard to stop. Air raid alerts are disrupting daily life, sending people running for shelter and denting economic output.
The attacks come in waves, Ihnat told Ukrainian television late Tuesday, mostly aimed at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine needs more missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to counter ballistic missiles and for other ground-based air defenses, he said.
The main Russian targets were energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Zelensky said on social media, describing it as “a difficult attack” as Moscow stretches Ukraine’s air defenses.
Zelensky thanked foreign countries supporting Ukraine for recent deliveries of air defense help. “And the closer we get to winter, the more of this protection we need,” he said. “We must do everything to ensure that Russia’s bet on ballistic missile and drone terror does not pay off.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight attack hit a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant, an electrical substation, an energy storage facility and a data center.
Ukrainian officials didn’t specifically confirm those strikes, as Kyiv wants to deny Moscow intelligence about the effectiveness of its attacks. Authorities reported hits on civilian areas of at least four Kyiv districts.
Arhirova and Hatton write for the Associated Press. Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
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