Russia launched scores of missiles and drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting gas infrastructure and other energy facilities in western regions in a new barrage against the struggling power system in the depths of winter,
Reuters reports.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the Russian forces launched over 40 missiles during the morning attack and used more than 70 drones overnight.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 30 missiles and 47 drones, the air force said. Another 27 drones were "lost" in reference to Kyiv using electronic warfare to redirect them.
"Another massive Russian attack. It's the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure," Zelenskiy said in a social media post on X platform.
"Among their objectives were gas and energy facilities that sustain normal life for our people."
The capital Kyiv also came under attack, with hundreds of residents taking shelter in underground metro stations across the capital, sleeping on yoga mats and sitting on folded chairs with their pets.
The governor of Ukraine's western Lviv region said two energy facilities, in the Drohobych and Stryi districts, were damaged. In neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk, the governor said air defences were fending off Russian attacks on facilities.
The air force also said that gas infrastructure facilities in the Kharkiv region in the northeast were attacked.
Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces conducted strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, successfully hitting all designated targets.
