Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with missiles and drones, killing four people and causing damage across five regions, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
Energy infrastructure and multiple regions hit
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the main target was energy infrastructure outside the capital Kyiv, and that residential buildings, schools and businesses were also damaged. He said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions were also targeted in an attack that included around 430 drones and 68 missiles, most of which were downed by air defences.
War context and international attention
Saturday’s strikes came as the spiralling Iran conflict has distracted international attention from a U.S.-backed peace push in the four-year war, which Kyiv says Moscow has no interest in ending. “Russia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
Calls for air-defence support and impact on power supply
Zelenskiy repeated his call for Kyiv’s partners to boost production of critical air-defence weapons, as stocks have been diminishing while the United States and its allies in the Gulf have fended off Iranian strikes. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said on Saturday that consumers in six regions were without electricity after the overnight strikes and Russian shelling of frontline areas.
Broader campaign and responses
Russia’s winter attacks on Ukraine have left swathes of major cities without power or heating, part of what Ukraine describes as a campaign to weaken resolve as Moscow’s troops press a battlefield offensive and demand Kyiv cede more territory in the east. Ukraine’s forces have targeted Russian strategic infrastructure such as oil refineries, depots and terminals in long-range strikes.
Resident reaction
“There’s no way Russia will stop,” said local resident Natalia Fetko, 57, whose building was damaged in the strike. “Nothing is enough for them.”
How do you think the latest strikes could affect Ukraine’s energy supply in the coming weeks?