At least seven reported killed as Russia attacks Ukraine’s energy grid

Russia unleashed a widely anticipated air campaign against Ukraine’s energy grid ‌on Wednesday, hitting power facilities and infrastructure around Kyiv and other regions in the heaviest combined attack on energy sites in months.The strikes, in which Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed, followed days ​of intensifying drone barrages primarily on the capital, a prelude to what many Ukrainians expect to be a winter of attacks intended to plunge cities into cold and darkness when Ukraine is short of air defences.“Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure,” prime minister Sergii Koretskyi said on X after the attacks overnight.“Since summer, there’s barely been a day without an attack on ​our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn’t happened since the end of last heating season.”READ MORERussian attacks last winter, which brought record-low temperatures, damaged power and heating systems, forcing Ukrainians to ⁠adapt to dire circumstances.Kyiv residents woke on Wednesday to a city shrouded in thick fog from the smoke of ‌attacks, ‌which ​authorities said damaged a key power plant and other energy facilities around the capital.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the surrounding area was the main target of an onslaught that included nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles. The ⁠air force said it had shot down five missiles and ​155 drones.A child was among the seven dead across Ukraine, Zelenskiy said, with critical ​infrastructure coming under attack in five regions. Other damage was reported in another five regions, he added.Russia said its forces had struck power plants in the Kyiv region, an ‌industrial complex in Odesa region, and port infrastructure in Ismail ​in the southwest.[ Russian foreign minister vows to see Ukraine war ‘through to the end’Opens in new window ]Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said debris had been found at a western embassy, but offered no further details. The overnight attack triggered a ⁠more than 12-hour air-raid alert.Near-constant daytime sirens and explosions have ⁠become a fixture of daily life in ​Kyiv, where drone attacks have killed about a dozen people over the past week alone.Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha described Wednesday’s attack by Russia as a “deliberate” distraction from its grinding battlefield offensive in eastern Ukraine, which has slowed since last year.“Moscow is increasing the pressure on Ukrainian civilians as winter approaches, trying once again to turn cold, darkness, and disruption of normal life into weapons,” he said on X.Russia, which began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, denies targeting civilians although it has pounded cities and towns across Ukraine.Koretskyi, the prime minister, said he had instructed local authorities to check the readiness of backup power systems at critical facilities and speed up installations.Authorities in recent weeks and months ‌have been building protective facilities and aiming ⁠to diversify energy generation before Russia’s expected winter campaign.However, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Wednesday there was a critical shortage of urban shelters, describing the civil-defence system as having “completely failed”.Ukrainian state weather forecasters, meanwhile, said they expected freezing temperatures at night in Kyiv ‌in the coming days.In neighbouring Moldova, a drone crossed into its airspace and exploded near the eastern village of Hirbovet, police said.Nato members Romania and Poland scrambled ​military jets, the countries said, and flights at the Polish airports of Lublin and Rzeszow were temporarily suspended.[ How worried should we be about a Russian military attack?Opens in new window ]Ukraine ​has also stepped up attacks on Russia, striking oil refineries and major online retailers to undermine Moscow’s war effort.One person was killed in drone attacks in Russia’s Bryansk region bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said. – Reuters