Moscow launched more than 200 missiles and drones across a wide swath of Ukraine on Monday, damaging energy facilities and sending residents of Kyiv into basements and subways to seek shelter. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the assault as “one of the largest strikes” of the 30-month-old war.
The strikes occurred at a volatile time in the conflict, coming against the backdrop of Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into southern Russia — the first invasion on Russian soil since World War II. On Monday, Ukraine’s forces continued to try to advance in the region.
The offensive into the Kursk region has shifted the dynamics of the war after months in which Kyiv’s forces were on the defensive in Ukraine’s East. The push has slowed in recent days, but Mr. Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had advanced by one to three kilometers and taken control of two more settlements. It was not possible to verify the claim independently.
At the same time, Russian troops have been attacking relentlessly along the front line inside Ukraine, closing in on the key city of Pokrovsk and razing towns and villages with artillery barrages and glide bombs.
The drone and missile attacks on Monday, which began around dawn, targeted energy infrastructure in the capital, Kyiv, and in the regions of Lviv and Rivne in the West and Zaporizhzhia in the Southeast, the authorities said.
The strikes appeared to be an escalation of a Russian campaign against Ukraine’s power grid and inflicted damage significant enough to cause blackouts in Kyiv and other cities.
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