At least five civilians lost their lives in Ukraine as a result of a significant nighttime attack by Russia involving drones, missiles, and guided aerial bombs. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that more than 50 ballistic missiles and approximately 500 drones were deployed in nine regions of Ukraine. In Lviv, four individuals, including a 15-year-old, perished in a combined drone and missile strike, with six more sustaining injuries. This historic city in western Ukraine, known for being a refuge from conflict, experienced power outages in two districts and halted public transportation for a brief period.
On the outskirts of Lviv, a business complex unrelated to Ukraine’s war effort caught fire after the strike, as reported by Mayor Andriy Sadovyi. Another person was injured in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, while in Zaporizhzhia, a civilian woman lost her life and nine others were wounded, including a 16-year-old girl, due to a nighttime aerial assault. The attack destroyed residential buildings and left tens of thousands of households without power in Zaporizhzhia and nearby areas.
In Sloviansk, six individuals, including a child, were injured when a Russian guided aerial bomb struck an apartment block. The city, situated in the eastern Donetsk region under Ukrainian control, suffered damage to residential buildings, vehicles, shops, and a café from Russian airstrikes the previous evening. Zelenskyy renewed his plea for additional air defense support from Western allies to counter Russia’s “aerial terror.”
Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes on Russia have targeted Moscow’s oil infrastructure, exacerbating fuel shortages. The Kremlin has intensified attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in anticipation of winter, following a pattern observed since the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Moscow’s increased airstrikes on Ukraine’s railway network, vital for military transport, have been ongoing, including a recent strike at a railway station in Shostka that resulted in casualties.
