KYIV: Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least four people and battering the country’s already weakened energy grid, officials said.

Moscow’s largest attack in weeks on Ukraine triggered widespread blackouts and came after Kyiv claimed new advances in its offensive in Russia’s Kursk region. In response to the strike, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged European nations to help down drones and missiles over his nation battered by more than two years of war.

“If such unity has worked so well in the Middle East, it should work in Europe as well. Life has the same value everywhere,” he added, apparently referring to the US helping Israel shoot down Iranian projectiles.

State-owned electricity supplier Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts to stabilise its system following the barrage, while train schedules were disrupted. Residents in the capital Kyiv rushed to take shelter in metro stations, as an eyewitness heard the booms of what appeared to be air defences.

“We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now,” said 34-year-old lawyer Yulia Voloshyna, who was taking shelter in the Kyiv metro. “It was very scary, to be honest. You don’t know what to expect,” she added.

Zelensky urges Europe to help down drones and missiles

Since invading in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including punishing attacks on energy facilities. The Russian defence ministry confirmed it hit energy facilities in a statement but argued they were being used to aid Ukraine’s “military-production complex”.

The regions reporting strikes on power or critical infrastructure included Rivne and Volyn in the northwest, Khmelnytsk in the southwest, Zhytomyr in the north, Lviv in the west, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Odesa in the south.

Poland says airspace violated

Poland’s army said the Nato nation’s airspace was violated, probably by a drone, after deadly Russian strikes battered Ukraine. “We are probably dealing with the entry of an object on Polish territory. The object was confirmed by at least three radiolocation stations,” Operational Commander of the Armed Forces General Maciej Klisz told reporters.

Army command spokesman Jacek Goryszewski said “it is highly likely that it could have been a Shahed-type drone” of Iranian design, used by the Russian army. “But this has to be verified,” he said, adding that it could not be ruled out that the drone had already left Polish territory.

The army said it was conducting searches for what was “probably an unmanned aerial vehicle” around 30 kilometres into Polish territory from the Ukrainian border.

Zelensky said Russia hit Ukraine with more than 100 missiles and around 100 Iranian-designed attack drones in total, and called for European airforces to help down them in the future.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024