More than 450 Russian drones attack Ukraine's energy sites, President Zelenskyy says

Russia has used more than 450 drones and 32 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine's energy sector, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

The president said there were power outages in nine regions - with about 600,000 households thought to have been cut off.

"It is precisely the civilian and energy infrastructure that is the main target of Russia's strikes ahead of the heating season," Mr Zelenskyy said on X.

Two million in Kyiv also temporarily lost water supply, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba wrote on Telegram.

Parts of the capital on both sides of the Dnipro River lost electricity, while about 20 people were rescued when a block of flats in the Pecherskyi district was hit by a drone and caught fire.

Drone fragments landed in a number of areas and mayor Vitali Klitschko said eight people had been taken to hospital.

The deputy prime minister said about 4,000 buildings in the city were still without water.

Russia has recently launched several large attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure as winter looms - a tactic it's employed in previous years.

A missile and drone attack last week caused serious damage to key gas production facilities.

The country's biggest energy firm, DTEK, said its thermal power plants had suffered significant damage in Friday's attack but repairs had already begun.

Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 465 strike and decoy drones, as well as 32 missiles - but that 405 drones and 15 missiles had been jammed or intercepted.

National energy operator, Ukrenergo, reported power outages in Kyiv and the wider region, as well as Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy.

A seven-year-old boy was also killed and four people were injured in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where 12 apartment blocks were damaged.

"We had no power or water when I left my house. I can't get to work because subway is not operating and buses are
overflowing," Anatoliy, a 23-year-old student from Kyiv, told Reuters.

Russia's now-familiar tactic is to launch hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles simultaneously to try to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences.

At least five people were killed - with tens of thousands also losing power - in another attack on Monday.

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The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than three and half years after Russia invaded the country.

It now holds a significant slice of the east of the country - with small gains still occurring - but its vision of overrunning the country in a short timeframe never materialised.

Russia is also in charge of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

President Zelenskyy has called for more air defence units, particularly the US-made Patriot system, as well as tighter sanctions to try to pressure Vladimir Putin to negotiate.

He said on X: "What's needed is not window dressing but decisive action - from the United States, Europe, and the G7 - in delivering air defence systems and enforcing sanctions."

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