Russia attacks Ukrainian energy facilities, kills three

• Zelensky calls for more sanctions on Russia for energy attacks.
• Naftogaz reports damage to gas facilities.
• Many Ukrainian cities use generators for electricity and water.

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks in Ukraine, killing at least three people and destroying major energy infrastructure in three regions, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.

Two people were killed and 12 injured in the city of Dnipro when a drone hit an apartment building. One person was killed in the Kharkiv region, regional officials said.

Energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions were damaged, Prime Minister Yulia Svirydenko said.

State energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the biggest at its facilities since the start of the war in February 2022 and that it had halted work at its factories in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

“The last hit was not even a month ago and the enemy has now hit all of our production capacity at once. Stations are on fire!” Tsentrenergo, which generates about 8 percent of Ukraine’s power, said in a statement.

“Our generation is now zero.”

Zelensky calls for more sanctions

Zelensky said the sanctions pressure must be stepped up.

“… for every strike by Moscow on energy infrastructure – aimed at hurting ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, without exception,” he said on the Telegram app.

Since the start of its invasion nearly four years ago, Russia has been attacking the electricity sector as the need for heating increases. This autumn it has attacked natural gas facilities nine times in two months, according to state-owned Naftogaz.

Moscow’s defense ministry said it had launched “a massive strike with long-range air, ground and sea weapons” on weapons and energy production facilities in response to Kiev’s strikes on Russia.

Russia also said its forces continued to advance in heavy fighting around the cities of Pokrovsk and Kupyansk and captured a tiny village in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine regularly sends drones to strike oil facilities inside Russia.

As diplomatic peace efforts have faltered, Kiev is trying to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance its war.

The Ukrainian air force reported that 406 Russian drones and nine missiles were shot down, and 26 Russian missiles and 52 drones hit 25 locations.

Svirydenko said the government and energy companies were working to restore damaged electricity, water and heating.

In the Poltava region, two cities – Kremenchuk with a population of about 200,000 and Horishni Plavni with 50,000 – lost most of their electricity and were using generators to supply water, city officials said.