Ukraine: Seven dead in ‘most massive’ Russian airstrike

Russia has launched one of the largest air strikes on Ukraine so far in the war, said the head of the Ukrainian Air Force.

At least seven people were killed and dozens injured on Monday when rockets and drones were fired at more than half of Ukraine's regions.

The power supply was hit, causing widespread blackouts, while air raid warnings were issued across the country and people were urged to seek shelter.

Russia confirmed that it had launched attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure – one of its long-term tactics – and said all targets had been hit.

The barrage of rocket and drone attacks began across the country on Monday night and continued into the morning.

And much later that same day, a building of civil infrastructure in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih was hit by a Russian missile, killing one woman and leaving five others missing, the head of the local military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said on Telegram.

According to Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired 127 missiles and 109 combat drones overnight and through Monday morning. Of these, Ukraine shot down 102 missiles and 99 drones, he said on Telegram.

Mr Oleshchuk described the combined attack as “the most massive air strike”.

NATO member Poland said an “object” had entered its territory during the attack.

“Most likely it was a drone and we assume so because the trajectory and speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile,” army spokesman Jacek Goryszewski told Reuters.

NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah condemned the attacks on Ukraine and said Russia's violations of NATO airspace were “irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” the agency said.

Previously, an attack last December in which 158 missiles and drones were fired at Ukraine, was considered the largest attack to date.

The main target of this attack was energy infrastructure, but Moscow also sought to attack Ukraine's reserves of another important resource: morale.

Ukrainians are elated by their troops' recent successful advance deep into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

With Monday's attacks, Russia wanted to bring the people of Ukraine back down to earth and remind them and politicians in Western capitals that the Kremlin still has the upper hand in this war.

The message from Moscow was: Do not be fooled. Russia can continue to inflict suffering on the Ukrainian people whenever it wants.

About 15 regions of Ukraine were the target of the Russian attacks, said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The Russians used drones, cruise missiles and supersonic missiles, among other things.

“There are injured and dead,” Mr Shmyhal said on the social media app Telegram.

Dozens of people were injured, among the dead were:

• Two men – one aged 69 and one aged 47 – were killed in separate attacks in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the region's governor Sergiy Lysak said. Others were injured, including a 14-year-old girl, he added.
• A man was killed when his house was hit in Zaporizhia, the region's governor said
• The mayor of Lutsk said one person was killed when an “infrastructure facility” was hit. Five others were injured and there is no running water in most parts of the city, he added.
• In Izyum in the Kharkiv region, a man was killed in a rocket attack, the regional head said
• And in the Zhytomyr region of western Ukraine, a woman died after houses and infrastructure buildings were hit by rockets, the governor said.

The attacks caused severe damage to infrastructure. Many cities, including Kyiv, experienced power outages and water supply disruptions.

One of the remaining power plants – a hydroelectric plant north of Kyiv – was one of the most recent targets. The damage is still being assessed.

Russia targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure early on in its large-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

In recent months, the organization has renewed its campaign of attacks on the power grid, causing frequent blackouts across the country.

In June President Volodymyr Selensky said Russia began attacking the country's energy facilities at the end of March, destroying half of its electricity generation capacity.

Ukraine buys energy from the European Union, but this is not enough, and a nationwide blackout is planned most days to protect vital needs such as hospitals and military sites.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had attacked electricity and gas facilities as well as Western weapons storage facilities.

“All intended targets were hit, resulting in power outages and disruptions in the rail transport of weapons and ammunition to the front,” it said.

For Kyiv, it was a year full of bad news on the battlefield: Russia steadily gained ground in the eastern Donbass region.

There have been problems with mobilization and reports that Ukraine is running out of men.

But after Ukraine's surprise invasion of Kursk, videos of soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over the Russian villages they had captured gave Ukrainian morale a much-needed boost.

And it has shown the West that Kyiv is still capable of carrying out complex, daring and, most importantly, successful offensives.

On Monday, Zelensky called on Western allies, including Britain, the United States and France, to change their rules and allow Ukraine to strike even deeper inside Russia.

Ukraine may use some Western weapons to attack targets in Russia – but no long-range weapons.

And he said: “We could do much more to protect human lives” if European air forces worked together with Ukrainian air defenses.

Also on Monday, Ukraine attempted to attack an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, a city northeast of Moscow, according to the regional governor. No casualties or damage were reported.

And the Russian Defense Ministry said it had destroyed nine drones over the Saratov region, 900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.