Russian drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities leave three dead

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

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

Two people were killed and 12 wounded 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 Svyrydenko said.

State-owned energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the largest on its facilities since the start of the war in February 2022, and that it had halted operations at its plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

"The last strike was not even a month ago and the enemy has now struck all our generating capacity at the same time. The stations are on fire!" Tsentrenergo, which generates about 8 per cent of Ukraine's power, said in a statement. "Our generation is now zero." Zelenskyy said sanctions pressure should be intensified.

“For every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure — aimed at harming ordinary people before winter — there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions," he sai.

Since the start of its invasion almost four years ago, Russia has made a point of attacking the power sector as the need for heating grows.

This autumn it has attacked gas facilities nine times within two months, according to the state firm Naftogaz.

Moscow's Defence Ministry said it had launched "a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons" on weapon production and energy facilities in response to Kyiv's strikes on Russia.