The co-ordinated assault overnight on Saturday was largest of its kind since early September, according to authorities and local media.
In total, around 120 missiles and 90 drones were launched, Zelensky said on Telegram.
“Peaceful cities, sleeping civilians” and “critical infrastructure” were targeted, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said.
The Russian defence ministry reported that it had hit all its targets, saying that its attack was on “essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.
“Russian terrorists once again want to scare us with cold and lack of light,” was how President Zelensky put it.
Of course, anything that seeks to deny power to factories producing weaponry inevitably harms civilians too – indirectly, through the loss of electricity and frequently water, and directly, as missiles or fragments of missiles rain down from the sky.
The governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said there had also been disruptions to heat and water supplies, although the latter was gradually being restored. Hospitals and other critical infrastructure were operating using generators.
Further east, the city of Mykolaiv was also hit. The region’s leader, Vitaliy Kim, told the BBC that the people were resilient there, despite being attacked regularly.
“People are in a good shape and want to defend themselves. We do not want to lose our homes,” he said.
In Kyiv, fragments from intercepted missiles and drones fell in several places, but there were no reports of injuries.
The attack was the eighth large-scale one targeting Ukraine’s energy facilities this year, DTEK said in a statement, adding that its plants had been attacked more than 190 times since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian officials fear the most recent strike could signal another concerted Russian attempt to deplete the power grid as winter arrives.
Having already endured two-and-a-half bitter winters since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainians are bracing themselves for another.
“Here we go again” were the words of an official at one of Ukraine’s private energy companies, summing up the mood across the country on Sunday.
Through ingenuity and sheer determination, Ukraine has managed to survive each winter assault so far. There is every chance it will again, although its generation capacity is now less than a half of what it was in February 2022.
