Ukraine war latest live: Russia launches ‘massive’ missile and drone attack on Ukraine energy

Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva says Russia’s latest attack on energy infrastructure is a known strategy used by Russia ahead of the winter season.

“We know these tactics,” says Mezentseva, who is also head of Ukraine’s delegation to the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

Key infrastructure facilities were targeted “on purpose”, she tells the BBC, adding Russia carried out similar attacks in the lead-up to winter last year.

“We view it as yet another mass war crime attack with genocidal nature,” she says, adding when civilians hear a ballistic missile approaching, they may have just “40 seconds to hide”.

“We need more air defence systems,” Mezentseva says, adding that she hopes Ukraine’s partners – including the UK, the US and EU allies – understand that Ukraine is a “shield” for the rest of the continent.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has released images of what it says shows part of a missile inside a residential building damaged in Kyiv by a Russian strike.

It says one person was injured in the building, which was evacuated after the strike.

Russia has consistently denied that it deliberately targets civilians. Since the start of the invasion in 2022, 11,973 civilians, including 622 children, have been killed, according to the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ukrainian officials say at least nine people were killed and others injured by Russian strikes overnight, which they say targeted energy infrastructure.

Two people have died and a 17-year-old boy has been injured in the Odesa Oblast, the head of the region has said.

Oleh Kiper also says work is ongoing to restore power and water to the area in southern Ukraine.

And in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional military administration chief Serhiy Lysak confirms earlier reports of two people killed and five injured in the Nikopol district.

Russia’s drone and missile attacks on Ukraine overnight targeted several regions across the country.

In Kyiv, residents sought refuge in the city’s underground train stations as air strikes hit the Ukrainian capital and caused power outages.

Blackouts were also reported in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, where two rail workers were killed and three injured after attacks on railways and rail depots.

Russian air strikes also caused power cuts in the eastern region of Donetsk and in the western region of Lviv, a woman was killed by rocket fragments.

In southern Ukraine in the city of Mykolaiv, two women were killed by drone strikes, with six injured including two children. The port city of Odesa was also targeted and power cuts were imposed in the wider region.

Critical infrastructure was hit in the Vinnytsia and Volyn regions and explosions were also heard in the cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, according to local media,

Fresh images from Kyiv show local authorities cleaning up the debris after Russian air strikes struck the Ukrainian capital.

Early this morning, workers used heavy machinery to remove parts of Russian missiles from an apartment block.

A 66-year-old woman died in the Lviv region in western Ukraine, the area’s regional head says.

The woman was in her car at the time of the attack and was killed by falling fragments of an enemy rocket, Maksym Kozytskyi says in a post on Telegram, adding two men have also been injured.

“Critical infrastructure” has also been damaged and 6,000 have been temporarily left without heating, he notes.

As we reported earlier, authorities have also said two people were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two others in Mykolaiv.

Ukrainian MP and leader of opposition party Golos, Kira Rudik, has been speaking to BBC 5 Live Breakfast.

She describes last night’s attack as “dreadful” and “terrifying”, saying there is currently no electricity where she is and does not know when it will be restored.

“Russia’s attacks continue over and over and we spend most nights in the bomb shelter when air raid sirens are on.

“Every night we come out of our homes and what we witness is another home was hit, another hospital was hit, another energy infrastructure system was hit,” she says.

Rudik also suggests Ukraine needs more support, saying: “You cannot win the war getting 10% of the military support you were promised.”

Poland says it scrambled its air force due to the “massive” Russia attack on Ukraine.

Posting on social media, the operational command of Poland’s armed forces says Polish and allied aircraft began operating in Polish airspace.

Poland “activated all available forces and resources” and “on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled” with ground-based air defences and radar reconnaissance systems reaching the “highest state of readiness”, it says.

The Russian attack on Ukraine involved cruise and ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, with areas in western Ukraine among those targeted, it says.

We’ve now getting pictures of residents in Kyiv seeking shelter in the capital’s underground train stations as Russia’s air strikes on Ukraine unfolded.

Platforms, stairs and waiting areas are filled with people wrapped up in blankets, winter jackets and beanies, with many bringing their pet dogs and cats.

Kyiv is among three regions suffering power outages, according to Ukraine’s largest energy provider.

DTEK posted on its Telegram channel this morning to say “emergency power outages” are affecting Kyiv as well as the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

It follows reports that Russian strikes have targeted parts of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko earlier called the strike “another a massive attack on our energy system”.

He said Russia was attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine.

Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister says Russia’s overnight attack is Vladimir Putin’s “true response” to Moscow’s recent diplomatic dealings with foreign countries.

“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” Andrii Sybiha, who became foreign affairs minister in September, writes on X.

“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently,” Sybiha writes.

“We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin for the first time in almost two years, despite Kyiv’s objections.

Scholz’s call came several days after Moscow denied reports that Putin and Trump spoke after the US election. In the call, the president-elect is said to have warned against escalating the conflict further.

Paul Adams
BBC World Affairs

Ukraine’s largest private energy company says the latest Russian missile and drone attacks caused “significant damage” to its thermal energy plants in a statement this morning.

DTEK said this was the eighth large-scale attack on its energy facilities this year.

It said that its thermal plants have been targeted more than 190 times since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukrainian officials fear that attacks like those this morning could mark the beginning of another concerted Russian attack to knock out key elements of the power grid as winter arrives.

The last major attack on power infrastructure was in late August. Ukraine is currently running on somewhere between a third and a half of its pre-2022 energy generating capacity. The exact figure is officially classified.

Two rail workers were killed after Russian air strikes on railways and rail depots in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the national railway carrier.

In a post on X, Ukrainian Railways say two railway men died and three others were injured as a result of “shelling of the railway”.

“Sincere condolences to their relatives and friends. We are grateful to every railwaymen for their bravery and constant hard work,” the post says.

Two women have died in Russian drone strikes on the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s State Emergencies Service says.

Six people were also injured including two children, it adds.

Governor of the Mykolaiv region Vitaliy Kim says drones attacked in “several waves” during the early hours of Sunday.

Residential buildings, a high-rise, cars, a shopping centre, and infrastructure were damaged, with fires breaking out, he says.

Russia launched around 120 missiles and 90 drones during a “massive combined strike on all regions of Ukraine”, Volodymyr Zelensky says.

Posting on Telegram, the Ukrainian president says Moscow was targeting his country’s energy infrastructure.

He acknowledges some areas are without power, and says work is ongoing to restore it.

Zelensky also says Ukrainian air defences destroyed more than 140 targets.

Paul Adams
BBC World Affairs

Air raid sirens sounded across the country during the night as Russian drones and missiles were launched from several locations.

Ukraine has experienced many such attacks, but this was the largest coordinated assault since early September.

Once again, the country’s energy infrastructure – generators and transmission stations – seemed to be the main target.

As temperatures drop and the first snow falls, the authorities are anticipating another difficult winter.

In the south, the city of Mykolaiv was among the worst hit, with at least two people killed and several injured. Further south, the Black Sea port of Odesa experienced a city-wide power cut.

Not for the first time, Poland scrambled fighter jets as missiles headed for western Ukraine.

And in the capital, Kyiv, fragments from intercepted missiles and drones fell in several places, but there were no reports of injuries.

Barbara Tasch
Live page editor

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the aerial attack Russia launched across Ukraine overnight.

The strikes largely targeted energy infrastructure and emergency power cuts have been announced in three regions.

Ukraine’s foreign minister called it “one of the largest air attacks” overnight, saying missiles and drones were used against “critical infrastructure”.

Explosions and casualties have been reported in a few cities across the country.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest news and analysis from the region.