Latest ‘massive’ Russian airstrike cuts power to 1 million homes in Ukraine | News, Sports, Jobs

In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, a Russian Air Force Su-34 bomber drops bombs on Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location. (Photo by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has conducted a “massive” attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday, firing nearly 200 missiles and drones and leaving more than a million households without power, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia’s second major airstrike on Ukraine’s power grid in less than two weeks has heightened fears that the Kremlin is aiming to cripple the country’s power generation capacity before winter.

“Attacks on energy facilities occur throughout Ukraine”, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a Facebook post. He added that emergency power cuts have been implemented nationwide.

In previous years, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s electricity generation, aiming to deny civilians heating and drinking water during the bitter winter months and break Ukrainian spirits. The attacks also aim to hamper Ukraine’s defense industry, which now produces missiles, drones and armored vehicles, among other military goods.

Kalibr cruise missiles with cluster munitions were fired at civilian targets in some regions on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, calling “an insidious escalation”. Cluster munitions release numerous small bombs over a wide area, making them dangerous to civilians both during and after an attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that his forces struck 17 Ukrainian targets on Thursday, including military facilities and “support systems” with 100 drones and 90 missiles.

It was Russia’s 11th massive combined attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this year.

But the Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down 76 cruise missiles and three other types of missiles, as well as 32 drones. It added that it had lost track of 62 Russian drones, which were most likely jammed by electronic warfare.

Neither party’s claims could be independently verified.

Ukrainian officials recently warned that Russia is stockpiling cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, possibly for another pre-winter air campaign against Ukraine’s power grid. Ukrainian officials have in the past accused Russia of “The Winter of Arms.” Such massive attacks were a regular feature of the war.

About half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed in the nearly three-year war with Russia, and blackouts are frequent. Kiev’s Western allies have sought to help Ukraine protect power generation with air defense systems and funds for reconstruction.

Last March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for two high-ranking Russian military officers accused of war crimes related to attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants and substations.

The war has turned in Russia’s favor in recent months as its larger army uses its advantages in manpower and equipment to push Ukrainian forces back into eastern areas, although its offensive has been slow and costly.

Putin said that over the past two days, Russia had fired 100 missiles and 466 drones into Ukraine, saying they were in response to Ukraine’s use of American-made missiles to strike targets on Russian soil after obtained permission to do so from President Joe Biden.

Speaking at a summit in Kazakhstan on a security alliance of former Soviet nations, Putin threatened to use a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, called the Oreshnik, against “decision centers” in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

The missile first launched in Ukraine last week has six warheads and flies at 10 times the speed of sound, according to Putin, who said it could not be intercepted by any modern air defense system.

Oreshnik can penetrate underground bunkers and release dozens of submunitions that “Turn Everything to Dust” Putin said. Using multiple Oreshnik missiles in a single strike would be comparable in its devastating power to that of a nuclear weapon, he claimed.

Explosions in Thursday’s Russian attack were reported in Kiev, Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk and many other cities in central and western Ukraine.

Zelensky called on Western countries to speed up the delivery of promised air defense weaponry. Ukrainian officials have in the past lamented that military aid has been slow to arrive.

“Every such attack proves that air defense systems are needed now in Ukraine, where they save lives, and not in storage bases.” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia is using large numbers of missiles and drones to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses and is exploiting weather conditions such as dense fog and cloud cover to make interceptions more difficult, the Ukrainian air force said.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia stockpiled missiles to hit Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season. “They were helped by their crazy allies, including North Korea,” he wrote.

Western governments and South Korea say North Korea has stepped up its military support for Russia in recent months.

The head of Lviv region in western Ukraine, Maksym Kozytskyi, said the attack had left more than half a million households without electricity.

More than 280,000 households in northwestern Rivne region were left without electricity due to the attack, according to regional governor Oleksandr Koval. The supply of running water was also irregular in the affected areas. Some schools in the city of Rivne have switched to online classes.

There were also strikes in the border region of Volyn, where 215,000 households were without electricity, regional chief Ivan Rudnytskyi said. All critical infrastructure that lost power was switched to generators.

Energy infrastructure was also targeted in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, local officials said. There, anti-aircraft defenses were activated and emergency blackouts were introduced.

Local officials ordered the opening “invincibility points” — shelter-type places where people can charge their phones and other electrical devices and grab refreshments during naps.

In Kiev, where the air raid alert lasted more than nine hours, rocket debris fell in a neighborhood, local officials said. No casualties were reported.