Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Saturday that Russia had launched the largest barrage of drones and missiles across Ukraine in a month, killing at least three people.
Russia fired a total of about 36 missiles and about 600 drones toward Ukraine between Friday night and Saturday, Zelenskiy said. Most of the capital Kyiv is without power.
“The main targets of the attack were energy infrastructure and civilian facilities, causing extensive damage and fires to residential buildings. There are now reports of dozens of people injured and three killed.”
“It was a particularly difficult night in Kiev,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha said on Telegram Saturday morning, saying the airstrikes hit not only ordinary Ukrainian homes, but also the country’s energy grid and critical infrastructure.
Two people were killed in the capital, including a 42-year-old man, and 15 others, including children, were injured, local authorities and police said. At this stage, it is unclear where the third person was killed.
Kiev was under air raid warning for more than 10 hours overnight into Saturday, and drones and loud explosions could be heard overhead, according to a CNN reporter who was in the city.
Photos published by Reuters showed emergency workers entering a high-rise building in Kiev. Dozens of windows were broken and much of the facade appeared to be charred.
Warsaw’s military said Poland scrambled military aircraft and air defense systems in response to the attack, adding: “These actions are of a precautionary nature.”
Ukraine’s energy ministry said more than 600,000 people were left without power after an overnight attack by Russia.
“As a result of the attack, more than 500,000 consumers in Kyiv, more than 100,000 in the Kyiv region and almost 8,000 in the Kharkov region lost power since the morning,” the ministry said.
