Russia hits Ukraine energy infrastructure with major missile, drone strikes, Kyiv says

KYIV, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Russia attacked Ukraine with dozens of strike drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, focusing on energy infrastructure and killing at least one person, the Ukrainian military and local officials said on Sunday.

The overnight strikes hit Kyiv and the region around the capital, the Black Sea port of Odesa and central Ukraine, they said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X that the strikes also targeted the Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Poltava and Sumy regions.

The main target of the attack was the energy sector, but residential buildings and railway were also damaged, he noted.

“Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than in diplomacy,” Zelenskiy said, adding that this week alone, Russia launched more than 1,300 drones, more than 1,400 guided aerial bombs and 96 missiles against Ukraine.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

NEAR-DAILY ATTACKS ON ENERGY SYSTEM

The U.S. has been trying to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but progress has been halting, with Russia demanding Ukraine withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region it still controls, an idea Kyiv has rejected.

Their most recent talks, in Geneva on February 17 and 18, did not produce a breakthrough.

At least one person was killed and another five were wounded in the Kyiv region, with damage reported in five districts where more than a dozen houses were damaged, regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said on the Telegram messaging app.

Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram that a nighttime drone attack on the energy infrastructure of the region caused fires that had been extinguished.

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 50 missiles and 297 drones in overnight attacks and air defence units shot down or neutralised 33 missiles and 274 drones.

“This terror cannot be normalised; it must be stopped. Russia cannot wag the world, just as the tail cannot wag the dog,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, calling on the international community to impose tough sanctions against the Kremlin.

Russia attacks the Ukrainian energy system almost daily, striking thermal power plants and electrical substations.

Attacks on power stations, the energy transmission system and the gas sector are important elements of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia in February 2022.

Moscow denies targeting civilians but says Ukraine’s civil infrastructure is a legitimate target because striking it can reduce Kyiv’s ability to wage war. Kyiv says the aim is to harm civilians and break the country’s will.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by William Mallard and Alex Richardson)