KIEV, Ukraine — Russia on Friday aimed drones, rockets and cruise missiles at Ukraine’s already battered infrastructure and fired on cities across the country, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a two-day push in Europe for more and faster support from Kiev’s allies make the country rain .
On the ground, Russia has increased the pace of its winter offensive, with forces backed by warplanes attacking on the eastern front, according to the Ukrainian military. Military analysts have said Russia has made small tactical advances over the past week – often at great cost – but as of Friday morning there was no evidence of a major breakthrough despite the heavy fighting.
The Ukrainian Air Force described Friday’s attack as a “massive attack” and said it involved 71 cruise missiles and seven Iranian-made drones. Ukraine said in a statement that it shot down 61 of the cruise missiles and five of the drones.
Mr Zelensky, who was traveling back to Ukraine after a stopover in Poland, condemned the attacks. “Their targets were civilians, civilian infrastructure,” he said in a video statement, adding, “This is terror that can and must be stopped.”
Since October, Russia has carried out more than a dozen major attacks on Ukrainian power plants, as well as many smaller attacks designed to disrupt electricity supplies and leave civilians without electricity, heat and light during the winter.
The full extent of the damage from Friday’s strikes was not immediately clear, but energy infrastructure was hit in six regions of the country, according to Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko.
“Emergency shutdowns have been implemented in many regions,” he says said in a statement, adding that energy workers are scrambling to restore supplies. State-owned power utility Ukrenergo confirmed damage to several high-voltage infrastructure sites in eastern, western and southern regions of Ukraine.
Over Kiev, the capital, Ukrainian warplanes sped through the sky to intercept incoming missiles and anti-aircraft systems thundered. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, ten rockets were launched over the city and power lines were damaged. He said engineers were working to restore the lines.
Russia also launched a full-scale attack using nearly three dozen S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Belgorod in Russia and the occupied city of Tokmak in southern Ukraine on targets in Kharkiv and Zaporizhia. Ukraine’s air defense system cannot shoot down anti-aircraft missiles, the Air Force said.
In southern Ukraine, Zaporizhia City Council secretary Anatolii Kurtiev said at least 17 rocket attacks had been reported in less than an hour. It is the highest rate of missile attacks the city has seen since the full-scale invasion began nearly a year ago, he said. The extent of the damage and the number of casualties are not yet known, he said in a statement early Friday.
Four rockets were also launched around the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, including three inside the city limits, local authorities said.
At least ten blasts were reported overnight in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional administration, said in a statement. They appeared to be aimed at critical infrastructure, but the extent of the damage wasn’t immediately clear.
Mr Zelensky made a whirlwind visit to Europe this week – only his second trip outside the country since the beginning of the war – begging London, Paris and Brussels for more and heavier weapons to repel Russia’s new offensive.
