The large-scale retaliation comes in response to Kiev’s “terrorist attacks on civilian sites in Russia,” the Defense Ministry has said
The Russian military has conducted concentrated strikes on Ukraine’s military and energy infrastructure overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
The strikes involved long-range kamikaze drones, as well as air- and ground-launched high-precision weaponry, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The strikes affected Ukrainian defense-industry sites and power plants feeding them, and came in response to Kiev’s “terrorist attacks on civilian sites in Russia,” the ministry added.
The Russian military did not provide an exact list of targets or the number of munitions used in the overnight strikes, stating only that all the designated targets were hit successfully. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the strikes involved around 600 kamikaze drones and dozens of missiles of various types.
Major power outages have been reported in several Ukrainian regions, primarily in the west of the country. According to the Ukrainian Energy Ministry, the regions of Rovno, Ternopol, and Kmelnitsky have suffered “almost” blanket blackouts, with major outages also occurring in Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Chernigov, Dnepropetrovsk, and Kharkov regions.
Ukraine’s interim energy minister, Artyom Nekrasov, claimed that the overnight strikes affected several substations linked to the country’s nuclear power plants, with the facilities forced to lower their output.
The country’s largest private energy operator, DTEK, said several of its thermal power plants were damaged during the strikes. The company did not explicitly name the locations affected by the attack.
Port and energy infrastructure sustained damage in Ukraine’s Odessa Region, local authorities said, specifying that a “civilian dry cargo vessel” and “empty warehouse” were affected by the strikes.
In recent weeks, Moscow and Kiev have been actively exchanging long-range strikes, primarily using assorted kamikaze drones. The Russian military maintains a campaign against military and dual-use sites as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks inside Russia that often hit critical infrastructure and residential areas.
