‘Massive’ Russian attack on Ukraine kills at least six, damages power sites

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s partners failed to warn of Russian ballistic missiles attack on Kyiv.

Firefighters work at the site of an apartment building damaged by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

Russian air attacks have killed at least six people in Ukraine and left hundreds of thousands without power, days after United States President Donald Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” in the more-than four year war.

The ⁠Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out a “massive” strike ‌against communications and energy infrastructure facilities ⁠in Ukraine, the Interfax ⁠news ⁠agency reported.

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In a statement, it said Russian forces targeted two heat ⁠and power plants in the capital Kyiv, ⁠another such plant in the wider Kyiv region along with a thermal power plant and an electricity substation.

Other targets included ⁠a heat and power plant in Kharkiv along with a ⁠thermal power plant which it ⁠said supplied the Ukrainian military in the southeast of the Kharkiv region.

The ministry said it had also hit a data ‌centre in Kyiv which it said was used to gather intelligence on Russia’s armed forces.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged people to remain in shelters.

“Energy facilities in Kyiv and the surrounding region have come under a massive ballistic missile strike. There are power disruptions in the capital,” he wrote on Telegram.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, said the attack had caused emergency power cuts in several urban districts of Kyiv.

A Russian strike on a multistorey building in the capital’s Desnianskyi district killed two people, while another attack in Golosiivsky district killed one, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

The Ukrainian military also reported that two people were killed and six wounded in Russian attacks on the Dnipropetrovsk region. Another person was killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

Further Russian missile attacks were reported in the Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions, while other strikes hit Sumy and Chernigiv.

Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, said a record number of hypersonic missiles were used in the attacks on the capital.

“Over half a million people in Ukraine are without power as a result of these strikes,” she said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine received no warnings from its Western partners of a Russian ballistic missile attack on the capital, raising questions about intelligence sharing.

“A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, no early warning from our partners,” he wrote on Facebook. “This is absolutely unjust: when they are destroying our infrastructure, and Ukraine is not even receiving early warnings about ballistic missile launches.”

The president said Ukraine detected the missiles only as they neared Kyiv.

He also accused Russia of violating the “energy ceasefire” Trump announced on Sunday.

“A targeted Russian ballistic missile strike specifically against energy infrastructure – the very infrastructure covered by the ceasefire announced by the American President,” he wrote on X.

“The strike was entirely deliberate and demonstrative in its scale – Russia has never before shown such ostentatious disrespect toward the United States.”

A technology adviser to the Ukrainian president said the operation of some Starlink internet terminals appeared to have been restricted overnight, stopping the operation of its military-grade version above 160 kilometres per hour, disrupting combat missions.

“Tonight SpaceX introduced a speed limit for the Starlink terminals in motion,” Sergiy Beskrestnov said, referring to Elon Musk’s company, which owns Starlink.

“Our defence forces were not warned about this restriction, which led to the disruption of a number of missions. Obviously, this action cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation.”

Russia also reported Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. The governor of Russia’s Saratov region, Roman Busargin, said a Ukrainian drone strike had killed one person in the city of Balakovo.

Busargin said all ⁠infrastructure ⁠facilities were operating as usual. Balakovo is home ⁠to a data centre of Russia’s ⁠top lender Sberbank, a ⁠nuclear power ⁠plant and a hydropower station, whose dam spans ‌the Volga River, among other facilities.

Sberbank later ⁠said ⁠its data centre ‌in the Saratov region had been attacked by ⁠drones, but that ⁠all systems ⁠were operating ⁠as ⁠normal.

Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defence forces had downed nearly 500 drones flying towards the Russian capital overnight. Russian authorities said about 160 more were brought down over the Rostov region, while others targeted Moscow.

Russia’s military later put the number of downed Ukrainian drones overnight at 902, of which 180 were shot down near the capital Moscow.

弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基表示，乌克兰的伙伴未能就俄罗斯对基辅的弹道导弹袭击发出警告。

消防员在基辅一栋被俄罗斯导弹袭击受损的公寓楼现场进行救援。[Valentyn Ogirenko/路透社]

俄罗斯空袭已造成乌克兰至少六人死亡，数十万人断电。几天前，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普宣布在持续四年多的战争中实现“能源停火”。

据国际文传电讯社报道，俄罗斯国防部周三表示，其部队对乌克兰的通信和能源基础设施进行了“大规模”打击。

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声明称，俄罗斯军队袭击了首都基辅的两座热电厂、基辅地区另一座热电厂以及一座火力发电厂和一座变电站。

其他目标包括哈尔科夫的一座热电厂，以及据称向哈尔科夫地区东南部乌克兰军队供应电力的一座火力发电厂。

该部表示，他们还袭击了位于基辅的一个数据中心，该数据中心据称被用于收集有关俄​​罗斯武装部队的情报。

基辅市长维塔利·克利奇科敦促民众留在避难所。

“基辅及其周边地区的能源设施遭到大规模弹道导弹袭击。首都出现电力中断，”他在Telegram上写道。

乌克兰最大的私营能源供应商 DTEK 表示，此次袭击导致基辅几个城区紧急停电。

乌克兰国家紧急情况部门称，俄罗斯对首都杰斯尼亚斯基区一栋多层建筑的袭击造成两人死亡，而对戈洛西耶夫斯基区的另一起袭击造成一人死亡。

乌克兰军方还报告称，俄罗斯对第聂伯罗彼得罗夫斯克州的袭击造成两人死亡、六人受伤。另有一人在东南部的扎波罗热州丧生。

据报道，俄罗斯导弹袭击了哈尔科夫州和日托米尔州，而苏梅和切尔尼戈夫也遭到了袭击。

半岛电视台记者奥黛丽·麦克阿尔平从基辅报道称，袭击首都的行动中使用了创纪录数量的高超音速导弹。

她说：“由于这些袭击，乌克兰有超过50万人断电。”

乌克兰总统泽连斯基表示，乌克兰没有收到西方伙伴关于俄罗斯弹道导弹袭击首都的任何警告，这引发了人们对情报共享的质疑。

“俄罗斯对基辅发动了弹道导弹袭击。我们的伙伴再次没有发出任何预警，”他在脸书上写道。“这绝对不公平：他们摧毁了我们的基础设施，而乌克兰甚至没有收到任何关于弹道导弹发射的预警。”

总统表示，乌克兰是在导弹逼近基辅时才发现它们的。

他还指责俄罗斯违反了特朗普周日宣布的“能源停火协议”。

“俄罗斯对能源基础设施发动了有针对性的弹道导弹袭击——而这正是美国总统宣布的停火协议所涵盖的基础设施，”他在 X 上写道。

“这次袭击完全是蓄意的，而且规模巨大，极具挑衅性——俄罗斯此前从未如此明目张胆地对美国不敬。”

乌克兰总统的一位技术顾问表示，一些星链互联网终端的运行似乎在一夜之间受到了限制，导致其军用版时速超过 160 公里的运行停止，从而扰乱了作战任务。

“今晚，SpaceX 对星链终端的运行速度进行了限制，”谢尔盖·别斯克列斯特诺夫说道，他指的是拥有星链的埃隆·马斯克的公司。

“我们的国防部队事先并未收到有关这项限制的警告，导致多项任务中断。显然，这绝非偶然，而是与当前的政治局势有关。”

俄罗斯方面也报告称，乌克兰无人机连夜发动了袭击。俄罗斯萨拉托夫州州长罗曼·布萨尔金表示，乌克兰无人机袭击造成巴拉科沃市一人死亡。

布萨尔金表示，所有基础设施均正常运转。巴拉科沃拥有俄罗斯最大银行俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行的数据中心、一座核电站和一座水电站（其大坝横跨伏尔加河）以及其他设施。

俄罗斯联邦储蓄银行后来表示，其位于萨拉托夫地区的数据中心遭到无人机袭击，但所有系统均正常运行。

莫斯科市长谢尔盖·索比亚宁表示，防空部队连夜击落了近500架飞向俄罗斯首都的无人机。俄罗斯当局称，另有约160架无人机在罗斯托夫地区被击落，还有一些无人机则以莫斯科为目标。

俄罗斯军方后来表示，一夜之间被击落的乌克兰无人机数量为 902 架，其中 180 架在首都莫斯科附近被击落。