Bombay Durpun - Russia strikes Ukraine energy sites in 'massive' barrage

The barrage came just one day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the front line.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had deployed 43 cruise and ballistic missiles and 74 attack drones in the overnight barrage that appeared to have targeted sites mainly in western Ukraine.

"Another massive Russian attack. It is the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed in a statement its forces had carried out "high precision" strikes on energy facilities that "support the Ukrainian military-industrial complex."

It also repeated its claim that all the designated targets had been struck.

But the Ukrainian air force said 30 missiles had been shot down as well as 47 drones, while Zelensky said the authorities had been able to maintain the "operation of our energy system."

- Poland scrambles jets -

His comments, in which he urged allies to supply air-defence systems already promised to Ukraine, came ahead of a meeting in Warsaw between Zelensky and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP the leaders would discuss expectations for the upcoming US presidency of Donald Trump and defence.

Poland scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace, its Operational Command announced on social media, adding that there hand been no violations of its airspace over its three-hour mission.

Officials in western Ukraine, near Poland, said Wednesday that key infrastructure had been targeted or hit.

Svitlana Onyshchuk, regional governor of Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region, wrote on social media Wednesday that critical infrastructure facilities had been targeted in the attack.

Onyshchuk said air-defence systems had engaged incoming projectiles, adding there had been no casualties and that the situation was under control.

But authorities in the western Lviv region, which borders the EU and NATO member, said two critical infrastructure facilities had been hit in the Drogobych and Stryi districts, without elaborating.

"Fortunately, there were no casualties, but there was damage," governor Maksym Kozytsky wrote on social media.

The Ukrainian national grid operator Ukrenergo temporarily introduced emergency blackouts in seven regions and lifted them after the attack.

Ukrenergo however urged Ukrainians not to use powerful electrical appliances until later in the evening.

Separately, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region said that critical infrastructure had also been hit in his region over the last 24 hours, but did not specify when the strikes had occurred.

- Russia advances in Donbas -

The mayor of the southern city of Kherson meanwhile said that "part of our community is without electricity" as a result of the overnight barrage, without giving figures of those without power.

Ukrainian authorities had earlier issued air raid alerts for the entire country, warning of incoming missiles. AFP journalists heard sirens ringing out over the capital early Wednesday.

Moscow has pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure claiming the attacks are targeted against facilities that aid Kyiv's military.

The Russian military had accused Kyiv of using US- and British-supplied missiles for one of the strikes the previous day and promised it would "not go unanswered".

Kyiv and Moscow's escalating drone and missile attacks come at a difficult moment for Ukraine across the sprawling front line.

Building on those gains, the Russian defence ministry said Wednesday that its forces had captured the village of Ukrainka in the industrial region that the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.

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P.Raval--BD