Russia launched a massive overnight assault on Ukraine, firing a barrage of drones and missiles that killed at least three people and severely damaged key energy infrastructure in multiple regions, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that more than 450 drones and 45 missiles had been launched in the latest wave of attacks. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Dnipro when a drone struck an apartment building, while one person was killed in the Kharkiv region, local authorities said.
Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko confirmed that energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions sustained significant damage. She added that the government and energy companies were working urgently to restore electricity, water, and heating supplies disrupted by the strikes.
In response to the attacks, Zelensky called for stronger international sanctions against Moscow. “For every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure aimed at harming ordinary people before winter, there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Moscow’s Defence Ministry said it carried out “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on what it described as Ukrainian weapon production and energy facilities, claiming it was retaliation for Kyiv’s strikes on Russian territory. Ukraine’s air force said it had intercepted 406 Russian drones and nine missiles, though 26 missiles and 52 drones hit 25 sites across the country.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued advancing in eastern Ukraine, with the Defence Ministry claiming control of the tiny village of Vovche in the Dnipropetrovsk region. It also said its troops were making progress in intense urban fighting around the strategic towns of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, where Ukrainian units are reportedly under heavy pressure.
