Russia fires drone barrage at Ukraine's energy sector, kills one, Kyiv says
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia unleashed a new barrage of drones and missiles on Ukraine overnight, again targeting the energy sector and killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
Ukraine's military said Russian forces had fired 78 attack drones and six missiles over various regions during the hours-long attack. Air defences destroyed 66 drones and four missiles, it added.
"This night the enemy carried out another massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector, using drones and missiles," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, adding that three electricity transmission facilities, including one in the southern Mykolaiv region, were among the targets.
Later in the morning, the air force said it had recorded the launch of several hypersonic Kinzhal missiles targeting the small western Ukrainian city of Starokostiantyniv, home to an important air base and a frequent target of Moscow's strikes. The air force provided no further details.
One woman was killed in a missile strike on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, and 10 people were wounded in a guided-bomb attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said.
Around a dozen drones were destroyed over the capital Kyiv, while power outages were reported in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, in the central region of Poltava and in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, regional officials said.
Russian forces attacked Ukrainian facilities supplying electricity to the weapon production industry, the TASS news agency quoted Russia's defence ministry as saying on Thursday.
Moscow denies targeting civilians in Ukraine but says the country's energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target. Its attacks since March have knocked out about half of Ukraine's available power generation capacity, resulting in lengthy blackouts for millions across the whole country.
Ukraine is at a crucial juncture in the 31-month war as Russian forces steadily capture more territory in the eastern Donetsk region.
(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Olena Harmash and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Gareth Jones)
