At least five people were reported killed in a massive missile and drone barrage launched by Russia on targets throughout Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force said on Monday that the attack, which began around midnight and was ongoing.
Explosions were heard in the capital, Kyiv, and power supply in some of the areas of the city were disrupted, according to officials.
The attack appears to be the biggest in weeks, and targeted the country's energy infrastructure, an Associated Press report quoted the Ukrainian Air Force as saying.
According to the air force, there were multiple groups of Russian drones moving towards eastern, northern, southern, and central regions of Ukraine, followed by multiple cruise and ballistic missiles.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday termed Russia's overnight and early morning barrage on his country as “vile” and said it involved over 100 missiles of various types and about 100 “Shahed” drones.
Zelenskyy, however, did not confirm the death toll and said “some people were killed” and dozens were injured. He also confirmed that Russian attack caused “a lot of damage” to Ukraine's energy sector.
“Like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure. Most of our regions — from the Kharkiv region and Kyiv to Odesa and our western regions,” Zelenskyy said.
The missile and drone salvo comes a day after several people died in Ukrainian shelling in Russia's border region of Belgorod and Russian forces strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine, which left one journalist dead.
Russian forces struck a hotel overnight in the city of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, injuring two people and leaving one trapped under the rubble, regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. All three were reported to be journalists from Ukraine, the US, and the UK.
Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region also came under Russian fire, resulting in multiple civilian injuries, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app Sunday.
The fire exchange comes two weeks after Ukrainian forces launched their surprise offensive into Russia's Kursk. The ministry said the soldiers were currently in Belarus, but would be taken to Russia for medical treatment and rehabilitation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced earlier this month that Ukrainian forces had taken full control of the Russian town of Sudzha after Kursk, marking the largest Russian town captured by Ukraine since their cross-border incursion began.
Sudzha, which had a pre-war population of around 5,000, serves as the administrative centre for the Kursk region in Russia. Despite its small size, the town is more significant than other settlements Ukraine has captured since the incursion began on August 6.
