The Russian bombers launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s power grid, firing hundreds of missiles and drones, resulting in widespread blackouts, at least four deaths, and multiple injuries has been recorded so far.
Reports say Ukrainian forces intercepted the majority of the missiles and drones.
The attack followed Ukraine’s recent advances in Russia’s Kursk region.
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Poland reported a possible airspace violation by a Russian drone during the assault.
Ukraine president Vladimir Zelenskyy has urged European air forces to assist in defending against future attacks.
The development comes as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, set to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant, which Russia says has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces that are just 40km away.
The plant has four Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK-1000 reactors, the same design as those at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which in 1986 became the scene of the world’s worst-ever civilian nuclear disaster.
Grossi said the only way the IAEA could assess the plant’s security and validate the information it was receiving was to visit it.
Aljazeera media network reported quoting several russian military bloggers, such as the pro-war collective under the name of Rybar, called the attacks an “act of retaliation” for Ukraine’s surprising incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
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The Kremlin said on Monday there would be a response to Ukraine’s action in Kursk, but three weeks into the incursion, Kyiv has claimed further advances. While Russia says it keeps pummelling Ukrainian troops there, it has been unable to push them out.
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Alex Gatopoulos called Monday’s strikes “the worst aerial assault Ukraine has had to endure in months, focusing on smashing its power and water grids. In its third year of war, these long-range Russian attacks show no sign of ending any time soon.”