Russian missile barrage hits energy, railways across Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine: Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine on Sunday, crashing into energy and rail infrastructure and residential buildings, just two days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard a series of blasts starting at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT), shortly after an air raid alert was issued, with the air force later widening the alert nationwide citing the threat of missiles.

“Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the attack on social media, saying that Russia launched about 50 missiles and 300 drones overnight.

“The main target of the attack was the energy sector. Ordinary residential buildings were also damaged, and there is damage to the railway.”

One man was killed and a dozen more people were wounded, among them four children, in and around Kyiv, Ukraine’s national police said.

AFP saw rescuers sifting through debris of a largely destroyed two-storey house in Sofiivska Borshchagivka in the Kyiv region.

Temperatures had plunged to nearly -10C when the capital was struck, with emergency services deployed across the city.

The Ukrainian capital, regularly targeted by Russian missile and drone attacks since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, has faced waves of overnight strikes in recent weeks as Moscow has intensified its winter assaults.

The Russian army said it had carried out a mass strike targeting facilities used by Ukraine’s military, saying all targets were hit, in a standard comment for such attacks.

Authorities in Russia’s western Belgorod region said one man died after a Ukrainian drone strike.

The bombardment, which included ballistic and cruise missiles, prompted heightened vigilance across Ukraine, all the way to the western border.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said consumers in six eastern and southeastern region were without power after the strikes.

Poland’s Operational Command said early Sunday it was scrambling jets after detecting “long‑range aviation of the Russian Federation conducting strikes on the territory of Ukraine”.