This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russia’s military launched another wave of missiles and drones across Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said on October 20, with an energy installation hit and multiple injuries reported in another strike.
The Russian attack came as officials in Russia reported a large Ukrainian drone strike that appeared to target an industrial park where a key defense contractor plant is located.
Seventeen people, including a rescue worker, were reported injured after Russia’s military fired ballistic missiles on Kryviy Rih in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk. Eight of the injured were hospitalized, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, chairman of the Kryviy Rih defense council.
Fifteen residential buildings, as well as several educational institutions and administrative buildings, were damaged in the city some 400 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, a district was hit by a Grom-EI missile, RBK-Ukraine writes, quoting the regional prosecutor’s office. The Grom-EI is a hybrid of a missile and a gliding aviation bomb. Based on the Soviet-era Kh-38 air-to-surface missile, it reportedly has a range up to 120 kilometers.
Russia also attacked an energy facility in the northeastern Sumy region, the regional power operator Sumyoblenerho said on Telegram.
“As a result, more than 37,000 consumers in the Romny region (104 settlements) are temporarily without electricity supply,” it said.
Kyiv is bracing for its toughest winter of the war yet, with Moscow having destroyed much of its generating capacity and continuing to strike energy sites. Such strikes on civilian infrastructure are considered war crimes.
According to the Energy Ministry, Russia has carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities since October 2022.
About 10 drones were destroyed near Kyiv, the city’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app. There were no reports of destruction or injuries, it said.
Air alerts were declared twice in the capital during the night, lasting about three hours in total. The Lviv region near the Polish border was also the target of a drone attack, with no damage reported by early on October 20, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 31 out of 49 drones launched by Russian forces in their latest overnight strike across various parts of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said on October 20.
It added that 13 drones had been “locationally lost” and that two had flown into neighboring Belarus.
