Pavel Polityuk
KIEV (Reuters) – Kiev launched its biggest overnight drone attack on Russia since the start of all-out war, targeting a power plant and an oil refinery, while Russian forces advanced further towards major cities in eastern Ukraine, officials said on Sunday.
Ukraine also reported that Russia had shelled areas near the border between the two countries. A missile attack on a grain convoy killed a truck driver and an attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in northeastern Ukraine, wounded at least 28, he said.
The fighting comes at a critical juncture in the two-and-a-half-year conflict, with Russia stepping up its offensive in eastern Ukraine as it tries to flush out Ukrainian forces that crossed the western border in a surprise August 6 incursion.
Russia carried out some of the war’s heaviest air strikes against Ukraine last week, hitting energy facilities as part of a drone and missile campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and soldiers since the conflict began in February 2022.
Ukraine, with its rapidly expanding domestic drone industry, has stepped up attacks on Russia’s energy, military and transportation infrastructure.
It also wants the United States and other allies to allow it to use more powerful Western-supplied weaponry to inflict further damage inside Russia and weaken Moscow’s ability to attack Ukraine.
Russian officials said their air defenses had destroyed 158 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, with debris causing fires at an oil refinery in Moscow and the Konakovo power plant in the neighboring Tver region.
Temporary restrictions imposed overnight at Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports were lifted on Sunday morning, according to aviation monitoring group Rosaviatsi.
Reuters could not independently verify reports of drone attacks on Russia or from the Ukrainian battlefields and Kiev has not yet commented. Russia rarely discloses the full extent of the damage caused by its air strikes in Ukraine.
Russia advances in Donetsk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had used 160 missiles, 780 guided bombs and 400 attack drones against Ukrainian cities and military forces last week alone, and renewed his call for permission to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep inside Russia.
“We need further support for Ukraine’s legitimate response to fully defend and secure our cities from this aggression,” he said in a Telegram message on Sunday.
Zelensky called for “long-range strikes on Russian missile launch sites, the destruction of Russian military logistics, and a decision to jointly shoot down missiles and drones.”
Ukrainian officials have been even more assertive since visiting Washington last week, with Kiev’s allies wary of how Russian President Vladimir Putin might react if their weapons are used against targets deep inside Russian territory.
The plea comes as Russia accelerates its advance on the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, a key military outpost and transport hub for towns and cities further north.
Ukraine had hoped that a surprise Russian invasion of the Kursk region launched last month would force Russia to redeploy troops and relieve pressure on its besieged forces in the east, but so far it does not appear to have had the desired effect.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had captured two more settlements in Donetsk Oblast, including Putiche, just 21 kilometers southeast of Pokrovsk, “continuing their advance deep into the enemy’s defense lines.” Russian forces also captured the settlement of Viimka, the ministry said.
Ukrainian armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Shirsky said the situation along Russia’s main offensive line in eastern Ukraine was “difficult” but that all necessary decisions had been taken.
In Kharkiv, Mayor Igor Terekhov said 28 people had been wounded in Russian airstrikes. Regional Governor Oleh Shniekhbov said the injured included a six-year-old child and two medical workers.
