Russia launched its latest massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Friday morning, using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across the country, particularly in the western border regions. Dozens of drones were also used in the attack.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Friday morning that Russia had used 93 missiles and over 200 drones in the attack. He said Ukrainian forces had managed to shoot down 81 of the missiles, including 11 which had been successfully targeted by F-16 planes. Ukraine’s air force said the Russian attack included hypersonic Kinzhal missiles launched from the air.
Energy minister Herman Halushchenko said energy workers were doing everything possible to “minimise negative consequences for the energy system”.
Russia has been systematically targeting Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure in recent months, in a bid to sow chaos in the country ahead of winter, with temperatures due to drop well below zero in most of Ukraine over the coming days.
Svitlana Onishchuk, head of the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, said the area had suffered “the biggest attack since the beginning of the full-scale war”, from cruise missiles and drones. “The targets are critical energy infrastructure. There are hits! Luckily, currently, there are no victims,” she wrote.
Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s electricity system, resulting in repeated emergency shutdowns and scheduled power cuts, as the battered grid struggles to cope with demand. Around half of the country’s generating capacity has been destroyed over nearly three years of war, and workers scramble at power plants across the country to repair the damage after each strike.
Andrian Prokip, a Kyiv-based energy expert with the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, told the Guardian earlier this week that he expected the attacks to continue over the next six weeks, as both Russia and Ukraine manoeuvre ahead of Donald Trump taking over the US presidency. “I have a feeling that they would like to pressure the Ukrainian power system as much as they can before Trump’s inauguration. The Russians would like Trump to believe that Ukraine is already destroyed,” said Prokip.
Zelenskyy, in response to Friday’s attack, said: “This is Putin’s ‘peace plan’ – destroy everything. This is how he wants negotiations, by terrorising millions of people.”
Trump has promised to bring Russia and Ukraine to the table and end the war, but many observers of the conflict say there is little sign Russia wants to negotiate, except on terms that would be unacceptable to Ukraine.
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On 21 November, Russia used an intermediate range hypersonic missile, which Putin has dubbed the Oreshnik, for the first time, striking an industrial plant in the city of Dnipro. Putin has used the missile, which has nuclear capabilities, as a way of raising the stakes and threatening the West, and has said it could be used again, including against “decision-making centres” in the country.
US officials warned on Wednesday that another Oreshnik strike on Ukraine could be imminent, though there was no sign the weapon was used in Friday’s attack.