Ukraine war: Russia launches another large scale missile attack

Kyiv, Ukraine - Russia launched its biggest wave of drone and missile attacks in weeks on Friday, targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Smoke billows from the frontline Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as Russia launches another large scale missile attack.
Smoke billows from the frontline Ukrainian city of Bakhmut as Russia launches another large scale missile attack.  © REUTERS

The authorities in Kyiv said Moscow's forces unleashed 71 cruise missiles on Ukraine, of which 61 were intercepted.

The missiles were launched from Russian ships and aircraft, said the Ukrainian general staff in its evening situation report.

Russia also fired 29 missiles from the S-300 system, which is actually intended for air defense, at ground targets in Ukraine, according to initial figures that could not be independently verified.

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Six regions faced problems with the power supply and an air alert sounded throughout the embattled nation on Friday afternoon.

"The occupiers have launched strikes on critical infrastructure," Kharkiv's military governor Oleh Synehubov reported on Friday. Some 150,000 households were without electricity, he said.

Ukraine's nuclear power plants in danger

Fighting continues in the Donetsk region amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Fighting continues in the Donetsk region amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.  © REUTERS

In the Zaporizhzhia region in the south-east, officials said 17 projectiles hit within an hour. A senior official in the Zaporizhzhia city council, Anatoly Kuryev, described it on his Telegram channel as the "largest number since the beginning of the invasion."

The missiles hit several thermal and hydroelectric power plants, Ukrenerho chief executive Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told Ukrainian television, saying the situation was particularly difficult in Kharkiv.

The Rivne and southern Ukraine nuclear power plants had to scale down production due to instability, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). One of the reactors was shut down at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attacks as terror "that can and must be stopped" and issued a renewed plea for more weapons.

His country is already bracing for fresh Russian offensives on the first anniversary of the start of the war on February 24 .

Cover photo: REUTERS

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