Russia on Monday said that it launched more attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as Kyiv came under bombardment by Russian kamikaze drones.
“In the past 24 hours, the Russian Armed Forces continued delivering strikes by long-range air-and sea-based high-precision weapons against Ukrainian military command centers and energy infrastructure facilities. All the designated targets were struck,” a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Russian kamikaze drones struck energy infrastructure in Kyiv and rocket attacks were launched in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy oblasts. “Hundreds of residential areas have lost power as a result of the attack,” Shmyhal said.
According to South Front, Russian kamikaze drones also struck an energy facility in Odesa. In Kyiv, authorities said a Russian drone hit an apartment building, and that four civilians were killed in the strike.
The drones used in the strikes were Russian Geranium-2 UAVs, which the US and Ukraine allege are the same as the Iranian-made Shahed 136 drones. For their part, Iran denies that they’ve provided Russia with arms that can be used in Ukraine.
Monday’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure appear to be the most intense since Russia launched large-scale missile strikes across Ukraine early last week after the truck bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland.
The drone attacks came after an uptick in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod oblast, a region that borders Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously warned Russia would step up strikes across Ukraine in response to more Ukrainian “terror attacks” on Russian territory.
