Kyiv/Lviv — Russia unleashed one of its largest mixed missile-and-drone barrages in months overnight, killing at least five people and leaving tens of thousands without electricity across Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.
Four members of a single family — including a 15-year-old girl — were killed when a strike hit the village of Lapaivka outside Lviv in western Ukraine. Another person died in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said.
Lviv endured several hours of attacks that forced suspensions of public transport and widespread blackouts. Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi called it the largest strike on Lviv since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, saying air defenses and radar tracked about 163 inbound drones and missiles over the area.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched more than 50 missiles and roughly 500 attack drones nationwide; it reported direct hits at 20 locations and debris damage at six more, while claiming 478 missiles and drones were shot down and six failed to reach targets. Strikes were also reported in the Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa and Kirovohrad regions.
“This aerial terror shows why we need more protection and faster implementation of all defense agreements, especially on air defense,” Zelensky said, adding that a “unilateral ceasefire in the skies” could open a path to “real diplomacy.”
Poland scrambled fighter jets and placed air-defense and radar assets on heightened alert as the overnight strikes approached NATO airspace. “Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace,” the country’s operational command said, noting the move was to ensure airspace safety amid the cross-border threat profile.
Russia’s Defense Ministry described the operation as a “massive” strike on Ukrainian military and infrastructure targets. Moscow also claimed its air defenses destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian territory, according to state media.
Energy infrastructure was again a prime target as winter looms. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry reported damage in Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv and Sumy. In Zaporizhzhia, a power-plant strike cut electricity to more than 73,000 customers, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said. A woman was killed and several were injured; a 16-year-old girl was among those receiving treatment.
Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi said portions of the city — about 70 km (43 miles) from the Polish border — were without power as air defenses engaged successive waves of Shahed-type drones and cruise missiles.
The latest assaults came days after US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg signaled Washington would support Ukrainian long-range strikes inside Russia. “There are no such things as sanctuaries,” he said in a television interview last week.
Russia currently occupies most of Ukraine’s Donbas, as well as Crimea, and controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory overall. Kyiv has intensified strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent weeks, contributing to reported fuel shortages inside Russia.
