Ukraine’s military issued air alerts Tuesday for regions across the country, warning of Russian missile and drone attacks a day after a large wave of attacks targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The Monday attacks involved about 200 drones and missiles, which killed at least four people and knocked out power in several cities.
It was Russia’s most intense aerial attack in weeks, and came 20 days after Ukraine surprised Moscow with a cross-border incursion into Russia’s southern Kursk region.
U.S. President Joe Biden condemned Russia’s Monday assault, calling it an attempt to “plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness.”
Biden, in a statement, reiterated U.S. support for Ukraine’s military and highlighted efforts to bolster Ukrainian air defenses and help repair Ukraine’s energy grid.
“Let me be clear: Russia will never succeed in Ukraine, and the spirit of the Ukrainian people will never be broken,” Biden said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his calls for more long-range attack capabilities for his forces, saying that is necessary to target the areas in Russian border regions that Russian forces are using to launch missiles and drones at Ukraine.
“This is the optimal anti-terrorist tactic that every one of our partners, from whom we expect decisions regarding our long-range capabilities, would rightfully employ and certainly use to protect themselves,” Zelenskyy said late Monday.
Russia's defense ministry said its forces used high-precision weapons to strike important energy infrastructure in Ukraine that it said supported the military-industrial complex. It listed power substations, gas compressor stations and storage sites for aircraft weapons.
Poland said an "object" had entered its airspace and that it may have landed on Polish territory. A search for the object was underway.
"Most likely it was a drone, and we assume so, because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile," a spokesperson for the Polish army's operational command told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have advanced in eastern Ukraine, closing in on the transport hub of Pokrovsk.
Russia’s defense ministry said it shot down Ukrainian drones early Monday over the Bryansk and Yaroslavl regions.
Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said one of the drones was downed as it tried to attack an oil refinery.
Russia’s Saratov region was the main target of overnight Ukrainian drone attacks, with the Russian defense ministry reporting it destroyed nine of the drones. Officials in Saratov said falling debris damaged a residential complex and injured one person.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region reported two injuries from a Ukrainian drone attack on a car.
Russian air defenses also shot down Ukrainian drones over the Kursk, Tula, Oryol and Ryazan regions, the defense ministry said.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
