Russia attacked Ukraine with more than 200 missiles and drones early Sunday, its largest combined attack in months, forcing residents from their beds into bomb shelters, damaging energy infrastructure and killing at least two people just before 1,000 days had passed since their full-scale invasion of the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia used 120 cruise, ballistic and aeroballistic missiles and 90 drones, including Iranian-made Shaheds, in the attack. Ukrainian forces shot down more than 140 of them, he added.
The attack killed two people in the port city of Mykolaivin the south of the country, and left six others injured, including two children, he said. Zelensky. Later on Sunday, a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Sumy It killed eight people, including two children, and left almost 50 injured.
The Ukrainian energy company DTEK reported that Russian forces bombed their thermal power plantsseriously damaging the equipment. DTEK He said the night attack was the eighth “massive attack” against the company’s plants this year. Russia has regularly attacked energy infrastructure across the country, limiting Ukraine’s ability to supply power to homes and businesses.
The executive director of DTEK, Maxim Timchenkowrote in a statement on Sunday that Russia had resumed attacks on its facilities, adding: “These attacks again highlight Ukraine’s need for additional air defense systems from our allies to prevent further destruction.”.
“The energy supply to millions of people this winter depends on it”he added.
Ukrainians are preparing for a potentially painful winterand energy officials warn that Russian attacks could cause more blackouts continuous throughout the country and limit heating during the coldest months of the year.
The early Sunday attack came about a week after The Washington Post reported that President-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, in a call that the Kremlin He denied that it had happened.
On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke with Putin, the first time the Kremlin publicly acknowledged having had a telephone conversation with a sitting Western leader in almost two years. Germany said Scholz urged Putin, who has an advantage on the battlefield in terms of personnel and equipment, to consider negotiating with Ukraine to end the war.
The call angered Ukrainian officialsincluding Zelensky, who said it amounted to “exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time.” Ukraine has long publicly stated that it will not bow to foreign pressure to give up territory that Russia has confiscated. Scholz’s call may have paved the way for other leaders to engage in such communications, Zelensky said, adding that Putin is trying to reverse his years-long isolation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in the X newspaper that Sunday’s attack demonstrates Putin’s true opinion on the direction of the war in Ukraine.
“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently,” he said. “We need peace through strength, not appeasement”.
An increasing number of Ukraine’s European partners have begun to discuss possible agreements that could end the war. Privately, many Ukrainians have wondered whether such sacrifices would help end the war that has devastated the country for nearly three years.
Western leaders have expressed growing concern about the next stages of the conflict since North Korea and Russia signed a military agreement and Pyongyang sent troops to train in Russia. At least 10,000 of those troops are now deployed in the border region of Kurskaccording to US intelligence estimates.
Ukrainian forces control a swath of territory in that region, seized in an August offensive aimed at giving Ukraine a buffer zone along its northern border and an advantage in potential territorial negotiations.
(c) The Washington Post
