KYIV: Russia on Sunday struck Ukraine with a “massive” aerial barrage of missiles and drones across the country in the largest attack in months.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said Ukrainian drone strikes targeted Kursk and Belgorod regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting the capital as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.
Russian missiles targeted Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions, what officials in Kyiv called it one of the biggest barrages of the almost three-year long Russian invasion.
Moscow, meanwhile, said it had hit all its targets, claiming it had targeted an “essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.
Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine’s east and with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House raising fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.
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The spokesman for Ukraine’s air force Yuriy Ignat said on social media that Kyiv downed “144 targets”.
The giant attack followed two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, calling on the Kremlin chief to end Moscow’s offensive.
Kyiv had slammed Scholz for reaching out to Putin and Sunday said the attack was the Kremlin’s real answer.
Scholz on Sunday defended the call and insisted that Berlin’s backing for Kyiv was unwavering.
“Ukraine can count on us,” the German leader said ahead of flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, promising that “no decision will be taken behind Ukraine’s back” on ending the conflict.
“A massive attack on our country,” Zelensky said.
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“Over the past week, the aggressor used nearly 140 missiles of various types, more than 900 guided aerial bombs, and over 600 strike drones,” he said.
In the border Kursk region, where Kyiv has held onto swathes of Russian land since the summer, Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a local journalist.
Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said Yulia Kuznetsova, the editor of the local “People’s Paper” was killed in the Bolshesoldatskiy district of the Kursk region as she “took archives to her editorial office”.
Russia also said a man was killed by a Ukrainian drone in its border Belgorod region.
Ukraine’s energy operator DTEK on Sunday announced emergency power cuts in the Kyiv region and two regions in the east.
Russia’s aerial bombardment has destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy production capacity, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. – AFP
