Russia Targets Power Grid in Frigid Ukraine With Unprecedented Barrage of Missiles, Suicide Drones

Russia stepped up its aerial bombardment of Ukraine on Monday morning, unleashing a hellish barrage of missiles, rockets, and drones across the country that appeared to be targeting power plants and electric transmission lines in the early weeks of what's expected to be a frigid winter.

Western officials and analysts had previously warned that Russia was stockpiling its cruise missiles in preparation for a strategy of winter bombardment, as bad weather keeps the 900-mile front line largely static after 22 months of war. The temperature in Kyiv on Monday was 11 degrees Fahrenheit and forecasts showed no sign of it rising above freezing.

Monday's attacks struck a string of urban areas, including housing and a shopping mall, across Ukraine.

Russia fired 51 missiles of various types, as well as eight Iranian-made Shahed drones, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.

The Ukrainian Air Force intercepted 18 of the cruise missiles and all the drones, he said.

Ukraine usually has a higher interception rate, Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said on Ukrainian television, but the use of ballistic missiles — which use rockets to reach their trajectories — made it harder to stop the Russian attack.

"On the one hand, you have lots of missiles not shot down," he said. "The explanation is simple: they were flying on a ballistic trajectory, and into the regions where we can't shoot them down."

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces used precision sea-launched and air-launched long-range missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, to strike what it called “facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.”

In Kryvyi Rih, which is Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, more than 20 houses and a shopping mall were damaged in the attack, regional governor Serhii Lysak told the Associated Press.

Russia has recently intensified its attacks against Ukraine's cities and critical infrastructure as the temperatures dropped, echoing its strategy from last year.

On Sunday, a Russian attack in Donetsk cut power at two mines while 18 miners were underground, Ukraine's Energy Ministry reported.

Russian forces unleashed a large-scale air attack on Ukraine early on Jan. 2, targeting Kyiv, the surrounding region, and Kharkiv, killing six people and wounding at least 130, and in the largest air attack against Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, over 50 people were killed and 160 more wounded on Dec. 29.

Meanwhile, Russian troops have stepped up artillery barrages along the frozen front line around Kherson, killing two people and injuring five, as they try to advance on Ukrainian positions, AP reports.

At the same time, Russia's string of own goals continues.

In occupied Luhansk, a Russian warplane accidentally released a large bomb. Russian officials said an "unscheduled landing of FAB-250 aviation munitions took place,” the Kyiv Post reported. No one was reported injured.

That accident came less than a week after a Russian plane dropped its bombs over a Russian village near Voronezh, destroying six buildings.