Russia carries out 'massive strike' on Ukraine, killing at least 4 and injuring 26
Russia carried out a massive aerial attack across central and eastern Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people and injuring 26 others, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Ukrainian Air Force said in a Telegram post Saturday morning that Russia overnight had launched 503 projectiles -- 458 drones and 45 missiles -- of which 415 were shot down while the remaining 78 struck 25 different locations across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post Saturday morning that the targets of the latest Russian strikes "remain the same: ordinary life, residential buildings, our energy system, and infrastructure."
The city of Dnipro was hit hard, with three people killed and another 11 injured there, according to the regional military administration, which said children were among the casualties. A drone struck an apartment building in the city. Three more were injured in the nearby Samarskyi district of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said.
In the Kharkiv region, at least one person was killed in the village of Rokytne; eight others were injured in the suburbs of Kharkiv city; one person was injured in nearby Chuhuiv; and another was injured in the village of Hrushivka, according to the regional military administration. The mayor of Kharkiv said in a Telegram post Saturday morning that the city is facing a significant electricity shortage.
Additionally, one person was injured in the Poltava region and another person was injured in the neighboring Kyiv region, according to the respective regional military administrations. The strikes on the Poltava region targeted energy infrastructure facilities, cutting off electricity, water and heating to some communities, authorities said.
The Russian strikes mark the ninth large-scale attack on Ukraine's gas infrastructure since the start of October, according to Ukrainian state-run energy firm Naftogaz, which in a Telegram post Saturday morning accused Russian of deliberately "targeting enterprises that provide Ukrainians with gas and heat" during the winter months.
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a Telegram post Saturday morning that it had targeted Ukrainian military and energy infrastructure in an overnight attack. The "massive strike" was carried out in response to "Ukraine's terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Russia," according to the Russian defense ministry.
