By Anastasiia Malenko and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
Targets in the central Vinnytsia and Poltava regions, as well as the northeast regions of Sumy and Kharkiv regions came under attack, he said.
“This autumn, the Russians use every single day to strike at our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said on X.
Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year, initially focusing on electricity but this year increasingly targeting gas infrastructure.
Sergii Koretskyi, CEO of state energy company Naftogaz, said there had been six major attacks on gas facilities this month alone. The latest hits damaged facilities in several regions with operations halted at some, he said.
“This directly impacts the volume of domestic gas production, which we are forced to cover through imports,” Koretskyi said.
GAS NEEDED FOR COLD MONTHS
Ukraine’s cash-strapped government is in talks with international allies to raise funds to import more for the cold autumn and winter months.
Its air force said direct hits of 14 missiles and 37 drones were recorded overnight at 14 locations in the barrage, while 283 drones and five missiles were downed.
Russian drone strikes have also caused power cuts, with Ukraine limiting supplies to industrial consumers on Thursday.
Kyiv has ramped up its own attacks on Russian oil refineries in border regions and beyond.
Zelenskiy, who is due to meet President Donald Trump on Friday during a visit to the U.S., issued a fresh appeal for more long-range capabilities for Ukraine.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has turned a deaf ear to everything the world says, so the only language that can still get through to him is the language of pressure,” he said.
“That is exactly what I will be discussing today and tomorrow in Washington.”
There was no comment from Moscow on the overnight attacks in Ukraine.
(Writing by Olena Harmash; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Comments