KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia carried out a “massive” attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday, firing nearly 200 missiles and drones and leaving more than a million homes without electricity.
The second major Russian offensive on the Ukrainian power grid in less than two weeks heightened fears that the Kremlin intends to disable the country's energy generation capacity before winter.
"The attacks on energy facilities are happening throughout Ukraine," said Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko in a Facebook post. He added that emergency power cuts are being implemented nationwide.
In some regions, Kalibr cruise missiles with cluster munitions hit civilian targets, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, describing it as "a insidious escalation." Cluster munitions release numerous small bombs over a wide area, making them dangerous for civilians during and after the attack.
Ukrainian officials have recently warned that Russia was stockpiling cruise and ballistic missiles, presumably for another pre-winter air campaign against Ukraine's power grid. Kiev has accused Moscow in the past of using winter as a weapon.
Around half of Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been destroyed during the nearly three years of war with Russia, and rotating power outages are common. Kiev's Western allies have sought to help Ukraine protect its energy generation with air defense systems and funds for reconstruction.
The Russian operation aims to leave civilians without critical supplies of heating and drinking water during the bitter winter months and break the Ukrainian spirit. The attacks also seek to hinder Ukraine's defense industry, which is now producing missiles, drones, and armored vehicles, among other military assets.
The balance has tilted in favor of Russia in recent months, as its largest army uses its advantages in personnel and equipment to push back Ukrainian forces in eastern areas, although its offensive has been slow and costly.
Explosions were reported in Kiev, Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, and many other cities in central and western Ukraine.
Zelenskyy urged Western countries to speed up the delivery of promised air defense weaponry. Ukrainian officials have previously expressed that military aid is slow to arrive.
"Each of these attacks demonstrates that air defense systems are necessary now in Ukraine, where lives are saved, and not in storage bases," Zelenskyy said in the messaging app Telegram.
The head of the presidential office of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, said in a post on Telegram that Russia had accumulated missiles to attack Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season. "They were aided by their crazy allies, including North Korea," he wrote.
Western governments and South Korea say that North Korea has intensified its military support to Russia in recent months.
The head of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, Maksym Kozytskyi, said that the attack left more than half a million homes without electricity.
More than 280,000 households in the northwest region of Rivne are currently without electricity due to the attack, said regional head Oleksandr Koval. There are also disruptions in the water supply in the affected areas. Some schools in the city of Rivne have been instructed to study remotely on Thursday.
There were also attacks in the border region of Volyn, where 215,000 households are without electricity, said the head of administration, Ivan Rudnytskyi. All critical infrastructure that lost power has been connected to generators.
The energy infrastructure was also targeted in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk, local officials said. Air defenses were activated and emergency power cuts were implemented.
Local officials ordered the opening of "invincibility points" - shelter-like places where people can charge their phones and other devices and get snacks during blackouts.
In Kiev, where the air attack alert lasted more than nine hours, missile debris fell in one of the city's neighborhoods, local officials said. No casualties were reported.