Russia launched its largest drone strike against Ukraine overnight with 188 drones, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 76 Russian drones in overnight attacks that targeted areas across the country and damaged critical infrastructure.
The Air Force said Russia also used four missiles in the air assault.
“Unfortunately, critical infrastructure was affected and private buildings and apartment buildings were damaged in several areas due to the massive drone attack,” according to an Air Force statement.
The attack coincided with a Russian advance on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Russia claimed to have gained nearly 240 square kilometers over the past week, totaling about 600 square kilometers in November, Reuters reported, citing the Russian military and other analysts.
For its part, Ukraine reports having pushed back Russian troops from Kupiansk, a logistics center in Kharkiv, for the third time, according to Reuters.
“The only effective way to protect ourselves from this is to eliminate Russian weapons and launchers directly on Russian territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly speech.
“That’s why the ability to strike Russian territory is so important for us. This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and Russia’s ability to wage war in general,” he added. .
Countries that have given Ukraine weapons to fight Russia have been reluctant to allow Ukraine to launch those weapons directly to Russia, but Zelensky said he is “grateful to all partners who understand this and convey it to other partners.
“Nearly 200 Russian drones against Ukraine in one day is almost 200 proofs that Russian ambitions are totally detached from any idea of real peace,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s president said rescue operations were still underway in Sumy, where the barrage of Russian drones targeted a gas station. The president said two people had been killed in Sumy and “one person was probably still trapped under the rubble.”
Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones in the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr.
The power grid in Ternopil in western Ukraine, about 210 km east of Poland, was hit in the attack.
“The consequences are serious, as the facility has been significantly affected and this will have a long-term impact on the electricity supply of the entire region,” Tenopil Governor Vyacheslav Nehoda said in a televised speech.
Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Telegram that a drone had struck the center of Nikopol.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had shot down 39 Ukrainian aerial drones overnight.
Most of the drones were shot down over the Rostov region, while other interceptions took place over Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Orel, Voronezh and in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Officials in Rostov, Bryansk and Voronezh said on Telegram that no damage or casualties were reported in the attacks.
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters.
