Russia launches a massive drone and missile attack across Ukraine targeting energy infrastructure

Russia launched a massive drone and missile barrage across Ukraine, targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. At least three people were killed, and widespread power outages were reported on Monday.

The attack began around midnight and continued past daybreak, marking one of Russia’s largest assaults on Ukraine in weeks.

Russian forces deployed drones, cruise missiles, and hypersonic Kinzhal missiles across 15 Ukrainian regions, affecting more than half the country, according to Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in multiple regions,” Shmyhal stated.

He added that Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, had to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.

Shmyhal urged Ukraine’s allies to supply Kyiv with long-range weapons and the authorization to strike targets inside Russia.

“To stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it’s necessary to destroy the locations from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said. “We rely on our allies’ support and will ensure Russia pays.”

Ukraine’s air force reported multiple groups of Russian drones advancing toward the eastern, northern, southern, and central regions, followed by waves of cruise and ballistic missiles.

Explosions in Kyiv

Explosions were heard in the capital, Kyiv, where power and water supplies were disrupted by the attack, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

At least three fatalities were reported — one in the western city of Lutsk, one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and one in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, local officials confirmed.

Thirteen others were injured, including one in the Kyiv region, five in Lutsk, three in the southern Mykolaiv region, and four in the neighboring Odessa region.

Blackouts and damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were reported nationwide, from Sumy in the east to Mykolaiv and Odessa in the south, and Rivne in the west.

In Sumy, which borders Russia in the east, local authorities reported that 194 settlements were entirely without power, with partial blackouts affecting 19 others.

Ukraine’s private energy company, DTEK, announced emergency blackouts, stating that “energy workers across the country are working around the clock to restore power to Ukrainian homes.”

In response to the barrage and subsequent power outages, regional officials across Ukraine were instructed to open “points of invincibility”—shelters where people can charge their devices and access refreshments during blackouts, Prime Minister Shmyhal said. These shelters were first introduced in the fall of 2022 when Russia began targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with regular attacks.

Response in Poland and Russia

In neighboring Poland, the military reported that Polish and NATO air defenses were activated in the eastern part of the country as a result of the attack.

Meanwhile, Russian officials reported a Ukrainian drone strike overnight and into Monday morning.

Four people were injured in Russia’s Saratov region, where drones struck residential buildings in two cities.

One drone crashed into a residential high-rise in Saratov, and another hit a residential building in Engels, home to a military airfield previously attacked, local officials said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that 22 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight and in the morning across eight Russian regions, including Saratov and Yaroslavl in central Russia.