KYIV — At least three people were killed and 35 others injured as Russia and Ukraine exchanged overnight drone and missile strikes, with Moscow launching one of its largest attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, officials from both countries said Saturday.
In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Russian airstrike on a residential neighborhood in Slovyansk killed one person and injured 10 others, according to Vadym Lyakh, head of the city’s military administration.
Lyakh said eight apartment buildings were damaged, including two that were partially destroyed, while several people remained trapped beneath the rubble.
In the southern Kherson region, another Russian airstrike killed one person and injured 19 others, regional military administration head Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
Five more people were injured in an attack on a residential neighborhood in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where several apartment buildings were damaged and parked vehicles caught fire, according to regional military administration head Mykhailo Semikin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out “one of the largest attacks” on the country’s energy sector on Friday, striking more than 15 critical electricity generation and transmission facilities.
He identified Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Shepetivka, Slavuta and Netishyn among the hardest-hit areas, while energy facilities in the Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro regions were also targeted.
“The Russians have scaled up their anti-energy operation and are trying to stretch our reserves and repair capabilities as thin as possible,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
He accused Moscow of attempting to trigger widespread blackouts ahead of winter, leaving Ukrainians without electricity and heating.
Zelenskyy also criticized Washington for what he described as its failure to advance the Lindsey Graham Act, legislation intended to increase economic pressure on Russia.
“At a time when the Russians have carried out such a massive attack on our energy sector, a decision was unfortunately made in America to completely disregard the Lindsey Graham Act, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to bring this war to an end,” he said.
“This Act could have helped enormously — and still can!” he added.
The Ukrainian president warned that easing economic pressure on Moscow would encourage further attacks.
“Pressure is needed to stop this. A U.S. sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin — all of this only encourages him to keep attacking. We must not give up ground,” he said.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched more than 330 missiles and drones during the assault, claiming that 293 aerial targets were intercepted or otherwise suppressed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed carrying out what it described as a “massive strike” against Ukrainian metallurgical plants, a transformer manufacturing facility and energy infrastructure in Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities reported that a Ukrainian drone struck a passenger vehicle in the Belgorod region, killing one person.
Another drone attack injured one person in the village of Voznesenovka, according to the regional operational headquarters.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 610 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Russian territory, Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and the Black Sea.
Source: Saudi Gazette