Russia launches 'massive' drone and missile energy blitz across Ukraine

LONDON -- All regions of Ukraine were under air raid alerts early Thursday amid Russia's latest long-range drone and missile barrage against the country's energy grid, with almost 1 million people reportedly left without power.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched around 100 drones and more than 90 missiles into Ukraine, including projectiles carrying cluster munitions. "Each such attack proves that air defense systems are needed now in Ukraine, where they save lives, and not in storage bases," he added.

"This is especially important in the winter, when we have to protect our infrastructure from targeted Russian strikes," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 91 missiles, 79 of which it said were shot down. Russia also launched 97 drones, the air force said, of which 35 were downed and 62 neutralized via jamming.

"Three guided aircraft missiles and 35 enemy UAVs were shot down, and more than 60 were lost in location," the air force said in a statement. "In total, 12 strikes were recorded, mainly at fuel and energy sector facilities."

The air force also said Russia is changing its weapons and tactics, making it harder to intercept projectiles; for example, by "shooting thermal and radar traps and also using electronic warfare personal protection means installed directly on missiles."

These measures, plus the large number of drones and missiles fired together, "significantly complicates the work of Soviet-made anti-aircraft missile systems," it added. Western platforms, the air force said, are more effective, but there "are not enough in Ukraine to reliably cover hundreds of critical infrastructure facilities."

Weather conditions also played a role, the air force noted. "Dense fog and cloudiness" can make it difficult for ground crews and fighter pilots to intercept incoming missiles and drones, it wrote in its statement.

The Russian Defense Ministry said four missiles hit direct targets near the settlement of Maly Borbik in the Sumy district.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded Moscow's missile capabilities immediately after the barrage.

"The Russian hypersonic systems have no analogues in the world, their production is increasing," he said during at a session of the CSTO's Collective Security Council on Thursday in Astana, Kazakhstan.

"The Russian Federation produces 10 times more missiles than all NATO countries combined, and will increase production by a quarter," Putin said.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote in a post to Facebook that the country's energy network faced "a massive blow," with strikes on infrastructure "throughout Ukraine."

The state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo, Galushchenko added, moved onto emergency power outage schedules due to the attacks. Ukrenergo said on Telegram that the attack was the eleventh combined missile and drone attack on energy infrastructure in 2024 to date.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink wrote on X that Kyiv "awoke to air raid sirens and from the bunker we see the whole country is red from the threat of missiles from Russia as Ukraine's energy infrastructure is currently under attack."

The city's military administration reported "a combined missile and drone strike on Kyiv using, presumably, cruise missiles and drones of various types."

The alert in the capital lasted for more than nine hours, the administration said. "All missiles and drones that threatened Kyiv were destroyed," it added in a post to Telegram.

Power and water interruptions were reported in multiple regions of Ukraine, with explosions reported by local administrations across the country.

Maxim Kozitsky, the head of the Lviv military administration in the west of the country bordering Poland, said on Telegram that 523,000 customers in Lviv Oblast were without electricity following the strikes.

Oleksandr Koval, the governor of the western Rivne Oblast, said 681 settlements in region were without electricity due to missile attacks with some 280,000 people disconnected.

Volyn Oblast Governor Ivan Rudnytskyi reported another 215,000 people without power in his region.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, reported downing 27 Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea.

Andriy Yermak -- the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office -- wrote on Telegram that Moscow was using "terror tactics."

"They made stockpiles of missiles for attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, for war with civilians during cold weather, during the winter," he added. "They were helped by their crazy allies, in particular from [North Korea]."

"Now the Russians are carrying out a combined shelling of the country," Yermak added. "They even fight with children," he wrote, warning that Ukraine will respond.

ABC News' Patrick Reevell, Will Gretsky and Joe Simonetti contributed to this article.