Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure after Russian strikes caused destruction, power outages and at least eight deaths across war-ravaged regions.

According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles overnight, one of the largest aerial assaults of the near-four-year war. Among the targets were Ukrainian energy facilities, railways and residential areas.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed at least eight injuries: three each in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions and two in Lviv. 

The attacks coincided with St. Nicholas Day, the traditional start of the Christmas season in Ukraine and also the nation’s Armed Forces Day.

“The main targets of these strikes, once again, were energy facilities,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

He said Russia aims to “inflict suffering on millions of Ukrainians, and they stoop so low as to launch missiles at peaceful cities on St. Nicholas Day.”

The strikes caused widespread damage in the Dnipro, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa, Lviv, Volyn and Mykolaiv regions, officials said.

In the Odesa region, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba reported that 9,500 households were left without heating and 34,000 without water due to damage to local facilities.

One of the most symbolic blows came in Fastiv, a town southwest of Kyiv, where a Russian drone strike burned down the main railway station building.

While no casualties were reported there, Ukraine’s state rail operator said suburban rail traffic was disrupted.

Zelenskyy condemned the Fastiv attack as “meaningless from a military point of view.”

Rolling power outages were introduced nationwide to stabilize the grid, announced by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko after convening an emergency meeting.

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant briefly lost all off‑site power overnight before being reconnected, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, with radiation levels remaining normal.

(C) 2025 DW