Zelensky assesses Russia’s airstrike on Ukraine

Russia launched a “massive” missile and drone attack targeting energy infrastructure across Ukraine overnight and on Monday (26), Ukrainian authorities said, killing at least four people and causing power outages in several cities.

The nationwide strikes used “more than 100 missiles of various types and about 100 Shahed drones,” Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky said, calling it “one of the largest strikes” in more than two and a half years of war.

Ukraine’s air force said it detected dozens of missiles and drones targeting almost every region of the country, from the eastern frontline regions of Kharkiv and Dnipro to the southern port city of Odessa as well as the capital Kiev.

“Russian terrorists have once again attacked energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Telegram on Monday. At least 15 regions were targeted by a combination of drones, cruise missiles and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, he said.

Ukraine’s national energy company, Ukrenergo, was forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system, Shmyhal said. Power outages were reported in several cities, including Kiev and Dnipro, according to Serhii Kovalenko, chief executive of the Yasno energy company.

Ukraine has been bracing for weeks for a major Russian attack in response to Kiev’s shocking incursion into the Kursk border region — Russia’s first foreign invasion since World War II. Ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day on Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Kiev warned of an increased risk of Russian drone and missile strikes.

The overnight attack came hours after Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called on Belarus to withdraw what it described as a “significant” buildup of Belarusian forces and equipment on their common border. Kiev also said former Wagner mercenaries were among the troops on the border and urged Minsk “not to make tragic mistakes for your country under pressure from Moscow.”

Throughout the war, Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, trying to plunge its citizens into darkness and using freezing winter temperatures as a weapon of war. After Monday’s attack, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that “the energy sector is in the crosshairs” and that the extent of the damage was being investigated.

Deaths were reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Volyn and Zhytomyr regions, Ukrainian authorities said. At least five people were injured in the central Poltava region when an industrial facility was hit, the regional military chief said.

The teams of CNN in Kiev and Dnipro several explosions were heard during the night.

In Kiev, the head of the city’s military administration said air defenses were working in the region and on the outskirts of the capital and advised people to stay in shelters. In Kharkiv, emergency services were working at an undisclosed number of locations targeted in the strikes, according to the regional military chief.

Although Kiev’s Western allies have supplied Ukraine with large amounts of military equipment, they have imposed strict conditions on how it can be used. Fearing Russian escalation, Western countries have banned Ukraine from using the weapons it has been given to attack missile and drone launch sites inside Russia, meaning Kiev has to rely primarily on its air defenses to counter attacks from Moscow.

Following Monday’s attacks, Ukrainian authorities once again asked their allies to allow them to strike deeper into Russia.

“Every leader, every one of our partners, knows the decisive actions needed to end this war in a just way. Ukraine cannot be restricted in its long-range capabilities when terrorists face no such limitations,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba also made two requests to Kiev’s allies: “First, to affirm Ukraine’s long-range strikes against all legitimate military targets on Russian territory. Second, to agree to use partners’ air defense capabilities to shoot down missiles and drones near their airspace.”

The widespread airstrike comes two days after a Russian attack on a hotel in the Donetsk region killed a British security adviser and wounded two journalists.

Ryan Evans, a former soldier, has worked with Reuters since 2022 and has advised its journalists on security around the world, including in Ukraine, Israel and the Paris Olympics, the news agency said.


Residents without power

Lights went out in many parts of Kiev on Monday morning, with residents saying they lost power after hearing several loud explosions.

“There’s nowhere to go or hide,” said Katerina, 35, to CNN by phone on Monday.

She had recently left the city with her son to avoid bombings and now lives without electricity or water on the outskirts of the capital.

“The explosions were so loud that the house shook and the windows rattled,” she said. “After four or five explosions, my husband and I decided to wake the baby and go outside. Since the house was not new and there was no shelter or basement to hide in, it was not safe to stay inside because of the shrapnel coming from the windows.”

Anna, who lives on Kiev’s Right Bank, woke up to an air raid alarm followed by explosions.

“Most of the missiles were shot down in the area, but even from there I could hear the sounds of explosions and the work of air defense. My friends from other parts of the city wrote that electricity and water were cut off,” she said.

At a Kiev metro station that was used during the war as an air raid shelter, residents told CNN how they woke up scared by the sound of sirens.

“I woke up to the explosions and immediately came to the subway,” said Dmytro, 18, to CNN . “It was scary to hear the sound of explosions. “Kiev hasn’t been bombed for a long time.”

Russia says it has shot down drones

The latest Russian bombing also comes as Ukrainian forces occupy a swath of Russian territory in the Kursk border region and as Kiev carries out its own air strikes on targets inside Russia.

On Monday, Russia said its air defenses destroyed 20 drones launched from Ukraine overnight, including nine over the Saratov region, three over Kursk and two over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Tula regions.

On Sunday (25), the governor of Belgorod said that five civilians were killed and 12 others were injured in shelling.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his forces had advanced up to 3 kilometers into Kursk and taken control of two more settlements.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russian ground forces are slowly advancing towards the important eastern city of Pokrovsk, which could become the next major battlefield of the war.

Pokrovsk is a strategic target for Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that his aim is to seize the entire eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Pokrovsk lies on a major supply route linking it to other military hubs and forms the backbone of Ukrainian defenses in the part of Donetsk still under Kiev’s control.

In his speech on Sunday, Zelensky said that in Donetsk, “the greatest attention is on Novohrodivka and Vodiane, where the attacks are most intense. I am grateful to all our units for their resilience.”

Here’s what we know about Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory

This content was originally published in Zelensky assesses Russia’s airstrike against Ukraine on the CNN Brasil website.

Source: CNN Brasil

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