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Massive Russian drone and missile attacks overnight killed three people including a seven-year-old girl, Ukrainian officials have said, with the country’s prime minister condemning Moscow’s repeated strikes against its energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described Moscow’s daily targeting the power grid in the run-up to winter as “systematic energy terror”.
The latest deadly strikes also injured 17 others in the south region of Zaporizhzhia, including children between the ages of two and 16, the authorities said.
Rescuers pulled a man from the rubble of a building, but he did not survive, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration. A second person was also killed in the same region.
A seven-year-old girl died in hospital from her injuries in Ukraine’s central-west Vinnytsia region, regional governor Nataliia Zobolotna said.
Russian launched more than 650 drones and more than 50 missiles of various types in the attack, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian cities use centralised public infrastructure to run water, sewage and heating systems, and blackouts stop from them working.
Months of attacks have aimed to erode Ukrainian morale as well as disrupt weapons manufacturing and other war-related activity almost four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
“Russia continues…striking at the lives, dignity and warmth of Ukrainians on the eve of winter. Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness; ours is to keep the light on,” Prime Minister Svyrydenko said.
“To stop this terror, Ukraine needs more air defence systems, tougher sanctions, and maximum pressure on (Russia),” she added, referring to so far fruitless US-led diplomatic efforts to make Russia enter negotiations for a peace settlement.
Two energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in the western Lviv region, close to the border with Poland, local authorities said.
Difficult winter
Russian pounding of Ukraine’s energy grid will pose a “new challenge” for the country this winter, the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud-Basso, told Euronews earlier this month.
Renaud-Basso noted that it was important for Ukraine “to continue to strengthen and be ready”.
In the months leading up to winter, the EBRD was working with Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas company Naftogaz to ensure that Ukraine had sufficient gas storage.
However, these efforts have been thwarted in recent weeks, as Russia is scaling up its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s already weakened energy infrastructure.
The EBRD stepped up investments in Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, sending more than €8.3 billion there since the war began.
Additional sources • AP
