Extract from ABC News
Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, including the country's largest hydro-electric plant, has led to widespread power outages and killed at least five people, officials say.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 60 drones and about 90 rockets were used in the attack.
The attack came a day after Russia launched 31 missiles in a single attack on the capital.
It was the largest assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this year and one of the largest since the war started, according to Ukrainian authorities.
"Even last winter, attacks on our energy system were not as large as they were this night," the head of energy utility Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said.
Last winter, Russia deliberately targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, resulting in frequent blackouts across the country.
Many had warned that Russia might repeat this strategy ahead of this winter. But instead, Russia has launched massive missile and drone attacks primarily directed at Ukraine’s defence industry.
Mr Zelenskyy has been urging Ukraine's Western allies for weeks to provide additional air defence systems and ammunition amid delays in aid from the US.
"With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state," he said.
The attacks caused a fire at the Dnipro Hydro-electric Station, which supplies electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is Europe's largest nuclear power installation.
The main external power line to the plant was cut off, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said, but Ukraine's nuclear energy operator said it was restored hours later.
The plant is occupied by Russian troops, and fighting around the plant has been a constant concern because of the potential for a nuclear accident.
Three people were killed and at least eight injured in the Russian attack, according to Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
Attacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region caused blackouts, and other attacks were reported in areas of western Ukraine far from the front lines.
Two people died in the Khmelnytskyi region, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry.
"The world sees the targets of Russian terrorists as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydro-electric dam, ordinary residential buildings, even a trolley bus," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Russia is fighting against the ordinary life of people."
Russian officials said on Friday that one person died and at least three were injured in Ukrainian shelling of areas near the border.
The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed when a shell hit nearby while she was walking her dogs and that two others were injured.
The town of Tetkino in the Kursk region was shelled, injuring one person, Governor Roman Starovoit said.
Both regions have been subject to shelling and drone attacks in recent weeks and officials have said that attempts by Ukrainian fighters to cross into Russian territory have been repelled.
On Friday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia regarded itself to be at war due to the West's intervention on Ukraine's side.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russians have been told to refer to the war in Ukraine as a "special military operation".
"We are in a state of war," Mr Peskov told Russian publication Arguments and Facts.
"Yes, it started out as a special military operation, but as soon as this group was formed, when the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, it became a war for us.
"I am convinced of that. And everyone should understand this, for their internal motivation."
Kyiv missile attack injures 17
On Thursday, Russia staged its largest missile attack in weeks on Kyiv and the surrounding region, injuring at least 17 people and damaging schools, residential buildings and industrial facilities, officials said.
The air force said its defences shot down all the inbound missiles that were fired after a 44-day pause in such attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
The damage appeared to have been caused by falling debris.
"Every day and every night there is such terror. The world's unity can stop it when it helps us with air defence systems. Now we need this defence here in Ukraine," Mr Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.
City and regional officials said at least 13 people were injured in different parts of Kyiv and four more in the surrounding region. An 11-year-old girl was among four people taken to hospital, city officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv last week of launching attacks to disrupt the Russian presidential election that handed him six more years in power. The Kremlin leader said Ukraine would be punished for that.
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and has launched thousands of missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities and villages in attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.
The Ukrainian military has said Russia launched over 8,000 missiles on Ukraine in the first two years of the war.
'Terrible hatred'
Air raid sirens, which warn Ukrainians to take shelter, have sounded in the capital more than 1,020 times since the start of the war, the Ukrainian military said.
The capital was under an air raid alert for nearly three hours on Thursday morning (local time).
"We feel hatred, terrible hatred. This is not fear, this is hatred towards Russia generally and everyone there in particular," Kostyantyn, a Kyiv resident, told Reuters, standing outside a damaged residential house with his wife.
His wife Alisa added: "I send greetings to my parents in Crimea who voted … They went to the elections and voted for Putin. Mum, and Dad, thank you very much that my husband and I were almost killed today. Thank you."
The Russian military used strategic bombers and also launched some missiles from its territory, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said. The missiles targeted Kyiv from different directions, he added.
Kyiv city officials said that several kindergartens and schools, residential buildings and industrial sites were damaged by debris from downed Russian missiles across the city.
In the region, at least 40 private houses and two multi-storey buildings were damaged, regional officials said.
"Russia spent $US390 million ($594 million) on today's missile attack on Kyiv," Agiya Zagrebelska, head of sanctions policy at the National Agency on Corruption Prevention, told Reuters.
"This is less than 1 per cent of the amount of taxes paid by international companies to the Russian budget since the beginning of the full-scale invasion."
AP/ Reuters
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