LAST UPDATE | 26 Aug

RUSSIA LAUNCHED a massive drone and missile barrages across Ukraine today and at least six people were reported killed in the attack, which appeared to target energy infrastructure.

The earlier assault began at around midnight and continued after dawn in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest attack against Ukraine in weeks. Four people were killed and 20 injured in the initial attacks.

Two more people were killed by strikes later on in the day.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched at least 127 missiles and 109 drones in “one of the largest Russian attacks”.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said 102 missiles and 99 drones were shot down. 

AFP news agency journalists in the capital Kyiv heard explosions ring out early on Monday – likely from air defence systems – while residents rushed to take shelter in metro stations.

An AFP photographer also saw black smoke rising over the city, where power and water supplies have been disrupted, the city’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko, said.

Russian drones and missiles targeted 15 regions across Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said.

“Russian terrorists have once again targeted energy infrastructure. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” Shmygal said in a post on social media that also called for support from Ukraine’s allies to help thwart aerial attacks.

According to the Ukrainian air force, there were multiple groups of Russian drones moving towards eastern, northern, southern, and central regions of Ukraine, followed by multiple cruise and ballistic missiles.

One person was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where the attack sparked multiple fires, regional head Serhii Lysak said. One person was rescued from under the rubble, he said.

Lysak said Russian forces had attacked “en masse.”

“There is one dead, a 69-year-old man,” the governor wrote on social media.

One person was also killed in the south-eastern, partially occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said. He said an infrastructure facility was hit and caught fire.

In the western city of Lutsk, the Russian bombardment damaged an apartment building and an infrastructure facility, the mayor, Igor Polishchuk, said.

He added that one person had been killed.

In the southern Mykolaiv region, three people were injured, regional head Vitalii Kim reported. He also urged local residents to use “points of invincibility” in the region.

In the outlying Kyiv region, one person was injured in an attack that hit unspecified infrastructure objects and residential houses, regional head Ruslan Kravchenko said.

Ukraine’s private energy company, DTEK, introduced emergency blackouts, saying in an online statement that “energy workers throughout the country work 24/7 to restore light in the homes of Ukrainians”.

In neighbouring Poland, the military said Polish and Nato air defences were activated in the eastern part of the country as a result of the attack.

“We are probably dealing with the entry of an object on Polish territory. The object was confirmed by at least three radiolocation stations,” Operational Commander of the Armed Forces General Maciej Klisz told reporters.

The attack has been condemned internationally, including by the US and UK.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness as the fall sets upon us,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, calling the assault “outrageous”. 

Meanwhile, in Russia, officials reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight and into this morning.

With reporting from AFP and Press Association.