'Winter is coming': Russia strikes Ukraine with its biggest missile attack in weeks

Russia's latest strikes are reminiscent of those on critical infrastructure last year, and while Ukraine now has better defences, it still faces a huge challenge.

Firefighters at a site where debris from a missile fell on a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Source: AAP, EPA / Sergey Dolzhenko

Key Points

• Russian missile attacks caused power outages across Ukraine.
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strikes and called for more support from Western allies.
• Zelenskyy is on a diplomatic mission to the US in a bid to secure more aid for his country.

Russia pounded energy facilities across Ukraine in its biggest missile attack for weeks, firing what Ukrainian officials saw as the first salvo in a new air campaign against the national power grid.

Power cuts were reported in five Ukrainian regions in the west, centre and east on Thursday, reviving memories of multiple air strikes on critical infrastructure last winter that caused sweeping outages for millions during the bitter cold.

Officials said at least 18 people were wounded in the air strikes, including a nine-year-old girl, and a regional governor said two people were killed in separate overnight Russian shelling.

"Winter is coming. Tonight (Russia) renews missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure," MP Andrii Osadchuk wrote on platform X, formally known as Twitter.

Grid operator Ukrenergo said it was the first Russian attack on power infrastructure in six months, and reported damage to facilities in western and central regions.

The attack caused blackouts in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, it said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said in a statement its attack hit military industry facilities, radio intelligence installations and centres for the training of sabotage groups. It said it struck all its targets.

Ukraine has been racing to repair infrastructure after the attacks last winter damaged nearly half its energy system and forced grid operators to impose regular rolling power cuts.

This year, Ukraine has better, Western-supplied air defences, but still has a huge challenge defending against attacks across such a big country.

The attack caused blackouts in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. Source: AAP, EPA / Yakiv Liashenko

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visiting the United States following the United Nations General Assembly, condemned what he called "another massive attack".

Outlining Ukraine's needs before a meeting with US President Joe Biden, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app: "More air defence. More sanctions. More support for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines."

Biden was set to announce a new US$325 million ($507 million) military aid package for Kyiv, which was expected to include a second tranche of cluster munitions fired by a 155-millimetre howitzer cannon.

A man extinguishes a fire at a recyclable material storage facility after missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Source: AAP, EPA / Yakiv Liashenko

Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, had focused its air strikes since mid-July on port and grain infrastructure, hampering efforts by Kyiv - a major global grain producer - to export food products.

Many of the attacks have also killed civilians, although Moscow denies deliberately targeting them.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Joe Biden on Thursday. Biden was set to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine. Source: AP / Evan Vucci

Russia did not comment on the new air strikes, and says Ukraine has been attacking targets inside Russia as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive in the east and south against Russia's 19-month-old invasion.

Ukraine said Russia had fired 43 cruise missiles at targets overnight in several waves, and that Ukrainian air defences shot down 36 of them.

Loud blasts rocked Kyiv and the surrounding region as dawn was breaking, Reuters witnesses said.

The interior ministry and regional officials reported blasts in Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskiy, Rivne, Vinnytsia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.

A damaged hotel in Cherkasy, Ukraine, on Thursday. Russia did not comment on the new air strikes. Source: AAP, EPA / Igor Tkachenko

Maksym Kozytskyi, Lviv's regional governor, said three Russian missiles hit the western city of Drohobych and that an infrastructure facility and warehouses were hit.

In a separate overnight attack, two people were killed by Russian shelling of a dormitory in the southern city of Kherson, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

The Ukrainian military said its forces had struck the Saky air base in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight. It gave no details but a Ukrainian intelligence source said the attack inflicted "serious damage" on equipment at the base.

An adviser to Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, said none of Ukraine's missiles had hit their target.