At least 28 people, including five children, were killed in Russian strikes targeting several parts of Ukraine overnight, according to figures released by emergency services on Wednesday. Ukrainian authorities said the attacks involved ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones and hit 12 regions, with energy infrastructure among the main targets.
Pryluky records highest death toll
The city of Pryluky in the northern Chernihiv region recorded the highest death toll, with Ukrainian authorities saying 20 people were killed in a missile strike that hit and partly destroyed a residential building. The force of the explosion shattered windows in the area, while rescue teams continued searching through the rubble, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post that three of the children killed in the Pryluky strike were under one year old, while another child was eight. Ukraine’s interior ministry later said a fifth child’s body had been recovered from beneath the rubble.
Zelenskyy added that the wave of strikes had wounded dozens of people, including seven children, and said 15 people, including a child, had been rescued. He accused Russia of targeting “ordinary cities and the lives of ordinary people”, saying: “By continuing to target Ukraine, our people and our children with missiles, Russia is deliberately spreading terror.” The Ukrainian president had said in an earlier post that people might still be trapped under the rubble.
He described what happened as “one of the most horrific attacks”, saying Russia had launched a total of 70 missiles, according to his figures, including a large number of ballistic missiles that are difficult to intercept, along with drones targeting 12 regions overnight. Zelenskyy said energy infrastructure was among the attacks’ main targets.
Additional deaths reported in Ukrainian cities
He also announced that two people had been killed in the city of Oleksandriia and another two in Kremenchuk, both in central Ukraine, as he renewed his calls for Kyiv’s allies to provide more systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. In the capital, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people had been killed in a fire caused by a strike that hit the residential Darnytskyi district.
He added that subsequent strikes killed two more people, as attacks on the capital intensified in recent weeks with winter approaching. In Ukrainian areas under Russian control, Moscow-appointed authorities said two people, including a teenage girl, had been killed in a drone strike in the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region.
Moscow says military factories targeted
The authorities also reported that two more people had been killed in a drone attack targeting a village near the Russian-annexed city of Donetsk. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had struck factories overnight used to assemble and store cruise missiles, including Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles, as well as long-range drones.
It said on Wednesday morning that five ballistic missiles, 39 cruise missiles and more than 100 drones had been intercepted. Zelenskyy described ballistic missiles as “the greatest challenge”, despite several being shot down, and said obtaining new air-defence systems was “a vital necessity” to enable Ukraine to defend itself.
Ukrainian defences are also struggling to shoot down new, fast jet-powered drones, in addition to the difficulty of intercepting ballistic missiles. On Tuesday evening, Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing to carry out “large-scale” strikes, particularly against energy infrastructure.
In his evening address, he urged residents to monitor air-raid alerts, saying the authorities had “updated intelligence about the Russians’ preparations to launch a large-scale strike”. Channels specialising in military monitoring said they expected a large Russian attack combining cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and fast jet-powered drones.
Zelenskyy said at the time that the Ukrainian army was “ready to respond, to the extent allowed by our defence systems”. Commenting on Wednesday’s strikes, Zelenskyy said Russian forces had sought to deliver “a painful and demonstrative strike”, describing the attack as “one of the most horrific strikes” in the conflict that has continued for nearly five years.
Strikes put pressure on power grid
The escalation followed renewed attacks on Tuesday that led to scheduled power cuts, plunging parts of Kyiv into darkness to ease pressure on the damaged electricity grid. The approach of winter has raised fears of a repeat of last year, when Ukrainian energy facilities were bombed, leaving millions of homes without light or heat.
The authorities have already begun imposing restrictions on energy consumption in Kyiv, as pressure on the electricity grid continues. Air-raid sirens sound almost continuously in the capital to warn of possible Russian strikes.
Early on Wednesday, residents sought shelter in metro stations carrying bags, sleeping mats and blankets after the military issued warnings to people in Kyiv and other areas. Irina Rybalchenko, who works at a bank, said while sitting on a station platform in a dark hooded jacket and surrounded by bags: “We took our things and came here because we live right next to the station.”
She added that all of Kyiv was living in fear and that she and her colleagues had been stuck at work, while employees and their managers exchanged messages in group chats urging caution. Daria Medvedeva, 36, said the children were “completely terrified”, adding: “Whenever the shelling intensifies, we try to take shelter underground.”
Warnings and sheltering continued as rescue teams worked at damaged sites, alongside electricity consumption restrictions and preparations to deal with increasing pressure on the energy system during the winter.
