Kiev, Ukraine - Russia launched massive ballistic and cruise missile attacks across the region on Wednesday UkraineOfficials said the plan targets energy production and forces authorities to shut down the grid in some areas during cold winter weather.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out the attack on "vital gas and energy infrastructure that ensures the functioning of Ukraine's military-industrial complex." It gave no target location or other details.
A day earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry vowed to respond to an attack on Russian territory using multiple Western-supplied missiles. Kiev has not confirmed the attack but said on Tuesday missiles and drones struck an oil refinery and a fuel storage depot, a chemical plant that produces munitions and two anti-aircraft missile systems, reaching nearly 700 miles into Russia.
Long-range attacks have been a feature of the nearly three-year war, with the military engaged in a war of attrition along a front that snakes some 600 miles from northeastern Ukraine to the south. Russia has been advancing on the battlefield over the past year, but progress has been slow and costly.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia attacked Ukraine with 43 missiles and 74 drones overnight. A total of 30 missiles and 47 drones were shot down, of which 27 drones failed to reach their targets.
The Russian missiles were targeted from the Lviv region in western Ukraine near Poland to Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia. National energy company Ukrenergo reported emergency power outages in six areas. As a precaution, it often shuts down production during attacks.
“The enemy continues to terrorize Ukrainians,” Energy Minister Herman Halushenko wrote on Facebook.
Power had been restored to homes in some areas by midday, but Ukrenergo urged customers to avoid using power-hungry appliances.
Russia has repeatedly tried to cripple Ukraine's power grid and deprive the country of heat, electricity and running water in an effort to destroy Ukraine's spirit. The attacks also sought to disrupt Ukraine's defense manufacturing industry.
Last September, the United Nations refugee agency reported that Ukraine had lost more than 60% of its energy generation capacity.
After the attack, Ukrainian authorities tried to rebuild power generation, but barrages have eroded production. Western partners have been helping Ukraine rebuild.
"It's the depths of winter and Russia's goal remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure," Zelensky said on Telegram.
He urged Western partners to speed up the delivery of promised air defense weapons to Ukraine, stressing that "promises have been made but have not yet been fully fulfilled."
Poland vows to push Ukraine to join EU
Separately, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk vowed on Wednesday to use Poland's EU presidency to push Ukraine's EU membership application.
"We will break the deadlock on this issue," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw, standing alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "We will speed up the EU accession process."
Zelenskiy was in Poland on Wednesday after the two countries reached an agreement on the exhumation of the bodies of Polish victims of World War II-era massacres by Ukrainian nationalists, a source of long-standing tension between the two countries.