Russia Launches Major Attack on Power Grid, Ukraine Says

Russia renewed its campaign to destroy Ukraine’s already battered power grid on Sunday, targeting energy facilities across the country with cruise and ballistic missiles and long-range drones in its most ferocious aerial bombardment in months, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack lasted several hours and featured around 120 missiles and 90 drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement. Air-defense teams destroyed more than 140 targets, but at least five civilians were killed, officials said.

“The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Unfortunately, there is damage to objects from hits and falling debris.”

Interceptor missiles could be seen streaking across the skies over the capital, leaving trails of smoke in the blue sky as they raced to meet incoming missiles, and exploding in thunderous claps. Similar scenes played out across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack used a combination of missiles fired from Russian bombers, warships and land-based systems as well as swarms of drones attacking from multiple directions. The long-anticipated resumption of Russia’s attempt to collapse the nation’s energy grid comes just as the winter cold begins to bite.

Ukrainian officials said the attack was the latest demonstration that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was not interested in peace but remained bent on the destruction of the Ukrainian state.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in a statement that the attack represented Mr. Putin’s “true response” to calls for peace. The minister added: “We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”

Emergency blackouts were announced across the country as a preventative measure to keep the system from being overloaded. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear as explosions were reported in nearly every region of Ukraine.

Two railway workers were killed in the Dnipro region and at least two people were killed in the port city of Mykolaiv, local officials said. Fires were reported in Lviv after debris crashed into a garage, killing one person. Two people injured by falling debris in Kyiv were hospitalized. In Odesa, all electrically powered transit was suspended.

Ukrainian officials said the number of people killed and injured could rise.

The bombardment comes after more than two months of nightly attacks by long-range drones, a concerted effort to wear down Ukrainian air defenses and terrorize civilians.