Nighttime Russian drone and missile attacks struck across Ukraine, killing at least four people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, a day after a heavy barrage pounded energy facilities throughout the country.
Zelenskyy said the attacks included 81 drones, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles and that 16 people were injured. He did not say where the four deaths occurred, but two people died in a strike on a residential building in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration.
“We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks. Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished.” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
In the Kyiv region, which had struggled with blackouts after Monday's onslaught, five air alerts were called during the night. The regional administration said air defenses destroyed all the drones and missiles but that falling debris set off forest fires.
After the Monday barrage across Ukraine of more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said "the energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists” and urged Ukraine’s allies to provide it with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.
President Joe Biden called Monday's Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “reprioritized U.S. air defense exports so they are sent to Ukraine first.” He also said the U.S. was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attacks used “long-range precision air- and sea-based weapons and strike drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.”
In Russia, meanwhile, officials reported four Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Kursk region, where Russian forces are fighting Ukrainian troops that made a surprise incursion this month.
The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant there. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi arrived in the Kursk region on Tuesday intending to inspect the plant, Russian news agencies reported.