Russia attacked five regions across Ukraine on Thursday with a barrage of missiles and drones, targeting the nation’s energy system and underground gas storage sites.
The attack lasted for several hours and involved various missiles and drones, culminating with six high-speed ballistic Kinzhal missiles descending on the area near Kyiv and a region around western Ukraine’s biggest city Lviv on Thursday morning, the country’s Air Force command said on Telegram.
In total, the country’s air defense downed 18 out of 42 missiles and all but one of 40 drones.
None of the Kinzhal missiles were intercepted. Power generation facilities and the grid near Kyiv, as well as in Kharkiv region in the east, Zaporizhzhia in the south, and Lviv in the west were damaged, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a post on Facebook. Odesa region in the south was also hit, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Poland scrambled military jets to patrol the skies, a standard response when Ukraine is under large-scale Russian attack in areas near the border region, Polish military command said on platform X.
Russia has stepped up missile strikes on Ukraine in recent months, targeting power, energy and port facilities across the country in an attempt to cripple the economy. Moscow is trying to capitalize on Ukraine’s vulnerable defenses as the military is forced to ration ammunition amid delays in US arms deliveries.
Two of Ukraine’s underground gas storage sites were targeted during Thursday’s attack, national energy company Naftogaz Ukrainy said on Telegram. The storages continued to operate even as their aboveground infrastructure was damaged, operator Ukrtransgaz JSC said on its website.
The personnel sought cover in a bomb shelter which helped prevent casualties, according to the statement.
Separately, Ukraine’s second-largest eastern city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region were hit at least 10 times on Thursday morning, triggering some disruption to power supplies, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said.
Kharkiv has also become a frequent target of Russian attacks with missiles and gliding bombs.
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