(Refiles to make clear the emergency service said the attack was the largest of the war on Lviv region)
By Dan Peleschuk
LVIV, Ukraine/KYIV (Reuters) -Russia rained missiles and drones on Ukraine in a mass overnight attack, officials said on Sunday, killing at least five people and damaging civilian infrastructure including energy facilities across numerous regions.
Four of the victims were family members killed when their residential building in the western region of Lviv bordering Poland was destroyed, local prosecutors said.
An industrial park in Lviv’s regional capital was also set ablaze and parts of the city were left without power, said mayor Andriy Sadovyi, who had urged residents early on Sunday to stay inside as authorities battled multiple fires.
ATTACK LIKELY LARGEST OF WAR ON LVIV, EMERGENCY SERVICE SAYS
A Reuters correspondent heard explosions booming across the dark morning sky as air defences engaged targets from several directions. The attack on Lviv was likely the largest of the war on the Lviv region, a spokesman for the State Emergency Service said on Ukrainian television.
In southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and 10 others wounded in a combined strike that left more than 73,000 customers without power, said governor Ivan Fedorov.
Civilian infrastructure was also damaged in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Chernihiv, Kherson, Kharkiv and Odesa, said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said energy facilities had been damaged in Zaporizhzhia and the northern Chernihiv region.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday its forces had struck Ukrainian military-industrial facilities as well as gas and energy infrastructure overnight.
Moscow has stepped up attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid in recent weeks as the fourth winter of war approaches and as diplomatic efforts to end the fighting have stalled.
“Another deliberate act of terror against civilians,” Svyrydenko wrote on X. “Moscow continues to strike homes, schools, and energy facilities — proving that destruction remains its only strategy.”
POLAND SCRAMBLES JETS TO ENSURE AIR SAFETY
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had fired more than 50 missiles and nearly 500 drones.
NATO member Poland said it scrambled aircraft early on Sunday to ensure its air safety.
“Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,” Poland’s operational command said in a post on X.
Eastern-flank NATO members are on high alert after Poland shot down suspected Russian drones in its airspace in September and drone sightings and air incursions, including in Copenhagen and Munich, have led to chaos in European aviation.
Lithuania’s airport in Vilnius was closed for several hours overnight after reports of a possible series of balloons heading towards the airport late on Saturday.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Andriy Perun in Lviv and Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Jamie Freed, Lincoln Feast, William Maclean)
