Russia launched a large overnight missile and drone assault across Ukraine on Sunday, killing five people, knocking out power to tens of thousands and striking multiple regions as Kyiv said Moscow aimed to hit military and energy infrastructure ahead of winter, President Volodymyr Zelensky and officials said.
The dead included four members of a single family, among them a 15-year-old girl, whose home was destroyed in the village of Lapaivka near Lviv. Another person died in Zaporizhzhia. Rescue teams worked at sites of wreckage as local authorities reported dozens more injured.
Zelensky said Russia fired more than 50 missiles and roughly 500 attack drones in the coordinated strikes, a combined figure that Ukraine’s air force put at 549. The air force reported direct hits by eight missiles and 57 drones at about 20 locations while saying air defenses had shot down hundreds of incoming weapons.
Western Ukraine bore the brunt of the assault. Lviv endured several hours of strikes that forced suspension of public transport and widespread power cuts. Maksym Kozytskyi, the regional head, described the operation as the largest attack on Lviv since Russia began its full scale invasion in 2022 and said roughly 163 drones and missiles were identified in the area. In Zaporizhzhia a struck power plant left more than 73,000 customers without electricity, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Poland scrambled fighter jets and allied NATO aircraft were deployed to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, and Poland’s operational command said ground based air defenses and radar systems had been raised to the highest readiness. Russia’s defence ministry described the operation as a successful, massive strike on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets.
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Zelensky used the attacks to press for faster delivery and fuller implementation of air defense agreements, saying, “We need more protection and faster implementation of all defense agreements, especially on air defense, to deprive this aerial terror of any meaning.” He added that a “unilateral ceasefire in the skies is possible” and could open a path to diplomacy.
The strikes came days after a US official said Washington would support Ukrainian deep strikes inside Russian territory, and follow a pattern of Russian attacks that have increasingly targeted energy networks as colder weather approaches. Emergency outages were reported in Chernihiv and Sumy, and officials warned of continued threats as air raid alerts covered the country.
Officials in Kyiv have called for more international air defenses and faster implementation of existing defense agreements. For now, residents in affected regions face damaged infrastructure, disrupted services and ongoing alerts as authorities work to restore power and tend to the wounded.