Russian strikes on Ukraine power grid largest in weeks

KIEV

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Aug. 26, 2024 shows rescuers working to extinguish a fire following a missile attack at an undisclosed location in Odesa region of Ukraine.

Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least four people and battering the country's already weakened energy grid, triggering blackouts, officials said.

The barrage was the largest in weeks from Moscow and comes as Kiev mounts a major offensive into Russia's Kursk region, where it has been battling for nearly three weeks and on Sunday claimed to be advancing.

"There is a lot of damage in the energy sector. Restoration work is already underway," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Telegram.

State-owned electricity supplier Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts to stabilize the system following the barrage, while train schedules were disrupted.

Explosions from what appeared to be air defenses could be heard in the capital Kiev early on Monday, as residents rushed to take shelter in metro stations, AFP journalists reported.

"We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now," said 34-year-old lawyer Yulia Voloshyna, who was taking shelter in the Kiev metro.

"It was very scary, to be honest. You don't know what to expect," she added.

The Russian defense ministry said it had struck energy infrastructure used to support Ukraine's defense industry.

Since invading in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including punishing attacks on energy facilities.

• Railways hit 

The attacks on Monday killed four people and wounded more than 20 others across the country, officials said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian bombardment killed a 69-year-old man, while missile attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed another, authorities said.

In the central region of Zhytomyr, Russian missile and drone attacks killed one person and wounded several others, authorities said.

And in the western city of Lutsk, Russian bombardments damaged an apartment building and an infrastructure facility, killing one person and injuring five others, Mayor Igor Polishchuk said.

Russia also attacked railway infrastructure in the northern Sumy region, injuring a man and damaging buildings, national operator Ukrainian Railways said.

"Some railway stations, which were also cut off from power due to the outage in the city's networks, have been switched to backup generators," it said.

Zelensky said Russia hit Ukraine with more than 100 missiles and around 100 Iranian-designed attack drones, and called for European air forces to help down them.

"In our various regions of Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbors worked together with our F-16s and our air defense," Zelensky said in a post on social media.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said the attack showed Kiev needed permission to strike "deep into the territory of Russia with Western weapons."

Authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region, meanwhile, said one resident had been killed on Monday morning by Russian rocket fire, but it was not immediately clear whether that incident was part of the missile and drone barrage.

• Strike on Kramatorsk 

The aerial barrage came after a safety advisor working for the Reuters news agency, Ryan Evans, was killed in a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine late Saturday.

Six of its crew covering the war were staying at the hotel in Kramatorsk, the last major city under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region.

The Kremlin said there was "still no clarity" about the strike when asked about Zelensky's assertion that the attack was carried out "deliberately."

"I will say it again. The strikes are against military infrastructure targets or targets related to military infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Zelensky separately announced on Sunday that his forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk, more than two weeks after Kiev's surprise incursion.