A Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier, damaged during a Russian FPV drone strike, lies at a roadside near Druzhkivka, in the Donetsk Oblast, in Ukraine, on Friday. — AFP KYIV (Ukraine), Oct 10 (AFP): Russian drones and missiles pummelled Ukraine's struggling energy infrastructure early Friday, cutting power to thousands across the country and killing a seven-year-old boy.
The Russian attack combining hundreds of drones and nearly three dozen missiles disrupted power supplies in nine regions of Ukraine and plunged entire districts of Kyiv into darkness.
AFP journalists in the capital heard several loud explosions overnight and experienced blackouts and water supply disruptions in different parts of the city.
"Around 3:00 am, we heard a terrible rumbling. All the windows in the apartment were completely shattered," Kyiv resident Yevgeniya Charchiyan told AFP after the strikes.
"Thank God there was no fire, everyone is alive and well, but the apartment is currently uninhabitable," she added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's latest barrage on energy facilities was a "cynical and calculated attack", and urged allies to respond with concrete measures.
"What's needed is not window dressing but decisive action -- from the United States, Europe, and the G7 -- in delivering air defense systems and enforcing sanctions," he said in a statement on X.
The Kremlin has escalated aerial attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and rail systems over recent weeks, building on earlier bombing campaigns over the previous three winters that left millions without heating in frigid temperatures.
The Russian defence ministry on Friday claimed that Russian forces had launched the "massive" attack on energy sites used to supply Ukraine's defence industry.
The Ukrainian air force said the Russian barrage comprised of 465 drones and 32 missiles, adding that 405 drones and 15 missiles were downed.
A source in Ukraine's energy sector told AFP that intensity of attacks is higher compared to last year, and that cloudy weather overnight had allowed drones to evade Ukrainian air defence systems.
Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said Russian forces had targeted "critical infrastructure", while the energy ministry announced hours after the attack that 270,000 Kyiv households had been reconnected, giving an indication of the scale of the fallout. Ukrainian police said some 33 people had been wounded in Kyiv and other regions.
Russia also hit the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, killing a seven-year-old boy, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the regional military administration.
The attacks caused outages to a "significant number of customers" mainly in the centre and the east of the country, the energy ministry said.
"This was one of the largest concentrated strikes against energy facilities," Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
It was the fourth attack in a week against the facilities of Ukraine's biggest private electricity provider, DTEK, its CEO Maxim Timchenko said.
The energy ministry said repairs had begun, but also imposed restrictions in several regions to reduce pressure on the grid.
It did not say which facilities were hit.
Russian military blogger Alexander Kots however said that that two power plants in Kyiv, along with six others in different regions, were hit. AFP could not independently confirm his claim.
Russian attacks this year have already strained Ukrainian gas infrastructure, Kyiv has said, and more strikes could force the country to ramp up imports.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Svyrydenko is expected to visit the United States early next week to discuss, among other topics, energy and air defense under intensifying Russian strikes.
The foreign ministry meanwhile said the overnight attack fell on the third anniversary of Russia's first large-scale attack on energy facilities, months after Moscow invaded in February 2022.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called on allies -- including the United States -- to respond with concrete measures after Russia launched a drone and missile barrage on Ukrainian energy facilities.
"What's needed is not window dressing but decisive action -- from the United States, Europe, and the G7 -- in delivering air defense systems and enforcing sanctions," Zelensky said in a statement online, adding that Russia had launched more than over 450 drones and more than 30 missiles in the attack.
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