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Russia Bombards Power Grid in One of War’s Largest Attacks, Ukraine Says
The attack lasted hours and involved around 120 missiles and 90 drones, officials in the country said. At least nine people were killed.
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
Russia renewed its campaign to destroy Ukraine’s battered power grid on Sunday, targeting facilities across the country with missiles and long-range drones in one of the largest and most complex bombardments of the war, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack lasted several hours and featured around 120 missiles and 90 drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Air-defense teams destroyed 144 targets, but at least nine civilians were killed, officials said. Mr. Zelensky said F-16 pilots had shot down 10 targets.
“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris.”
Interceptor missiles could be seen streaking across blue skies over the capital, before exploding in thunderous claps. Similar scenes played out across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia used a combination of cruise and ballistic missiles fired from bombers, warships and land-based systems as well as swarms of drones from multiple directions. Ukraine had long expected a renewed attempt to collapse its energy grid, and it has come just as winter begins to bite.
Ukrainian officials said the attack was the latest demonstration that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia remained bent not on a settlement but on the destruction of the Ukrainian state.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a statement that the attack represented Mr. Putin’s “true response” to calls for peace. The minister added: “We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”
Precautionary emergency blackouts were announced across the country, and later Sunday, the national power utility, Ukrenergo, said restrictions on energy consumption would be needed nationwide on Monday. With explosions in nearly every region, the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Even when air defense does its job, the margin between life and death can be a matter of inches as debris rains down. Serhii Melnykov said he was walking near his home in Kyiv when he heard a powerful explosion, followed by an urgent call from his wife.
“She was trapped under the debris,” he said. “I immediately called the ambulance and rescuers, but by the time I got home, my wife, Anya, had already gotten out from under the rubble.”
She suffered a concussion and was in shock, he said, but was out of danger.
Rescue workers told him that they pulled a 600-pound fragment of a 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missile from his apartment, he said.
Russian authorities have claimed that the Zircon can reach eight times the speed of sound, which would make it one of the fastest missiles in the world.
In both its size and variety, Ukrainian officials said the attack ranked as one of the most complex of the war. They also warned that Russia has been stockpiling missiles for months and would likely be able to carry out similar attacks in coming weeks.
Oleksandr Musiienko, head of the Center for Military Law Research, said that in addition to undermining the Ukrainian economy and causing pain, the attacks served a political goal for the Kremlin: demonstrating to President-elect Donald J. Trump “that there is no alternative but to force Ukraine to make concessions.”
He expected the attacks to continue as Mr. Putin tried “create a picture” that Ukraine was doomed.
The bombardment followed months of nightly attacks by long-range drones, an effort to wear down Ukrainian air defenses and terrorize civilians.
Before Sunday’s attacks, the United Nations warned that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could result in further mass displacement and deepen suffering for millions.
“If they were to target the energy sector again, this could be a tipping point,” Matthias Schmale, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said on Friday.
Years of relentless attacks have destroyed around 65 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving Ukraine even more vulnerable this winter. Because Ukrainian cities have centralized systems for water, sewage and heating, power cuts put all those services at risk.
The renewed assault also comes as Ukrainian forces struggle to slow Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky acknowledged the difficult situation in a radio interview broadcast on Saturday with the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
“There is slow, but nonetheless ongoing pressure and Russian advancement.” he said. “For various reasons: filling our brigades with trained personnel, equipping and supplying brigades with weapons — these processes have been quite slow.”
He said the war “will end faster with the policy” of a Trump administration but cautioned that Ukraine needed to strengthen its position on the battlefield to have a chance of negotiating a just and lasting peace.
Mr. Trump has vowed to bring the war to a quick end without saying how. On the campaign trail, he and some of his supporters cast doubt on his commitment to supporting Ukraine, leading to speculation that he might try to pressure Ukraine by withholding military aid.
Mr. Zelensky has said he has yet to hear anything of the sort from Mr. Trump, and has also repeatedly said that he sees no indication that Russia would be willing to negotiate in good faith.
“I don’t think Putin wants peace at all,” he told Suspilne.
With the Trump administration considering appointing a special envoy to mediate talks between Russia and Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky said it was important that America continue to recognize Russia as the aggressor.
“You can’t speak abstractly, ‘I’m a mediator, so I cannot choose one side or the other,’” he said. “This cannot happen when it’s about cases where international law was violated.”
Yurii Shyvala contributed reporting and Nataliia Novosolova contributed research.
Marc Santora has been reporting from Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia. He was previously based in London as an international news editor focused on breaking news events and earlier the bureau chief for East and Central Europe, based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from Iraq and Africa. More about Marc Santora
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