RUSSIAN forces unleashed a massive drone and missile barrage throughout Ukraine today, targeting energy infrastructure. 

At least three people were reported killed and power cuts were reported across the country.

The barrage began around midnight local time and continued beyond daybreak in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest attack against Ukraine in weeks.

Russian forces fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 Ukrainian regions — more than half the country, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said today.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” Mr Shmyhal said, adding that Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilise the system.

He repeated Kiev’s call for Ukraine’s allies to provide long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Mr Shmyhal said. “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

According to Ukraine’s air force, there were multiple groups of Russian drones moving toward eastern, northern, southern and central regions of Ukraine, followed by multiple cruise and ballistic missiles.

Power and water supplies in Kiev have been disrupted by the attack, the city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

At least three people were killed — one in the western city of Lutsk, one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and one in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region in the south-east, according to local officials. 

Blackouts and damage to civilian infrastructure and residential buildings were reported across the country, from the region of Sumy in the east, to the Mykolaiv and Odessa regions in the south, to the region of Rivne in the west.

In Sumy, a province that borders Russia, local administration said that 194 settlements were in a full power blackout, while 19 others had a partial blackout.

Meanwhile in Russia, officials reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight and this morning.

Four people were injured in Russia’s central region of Saratov, where drones hit residential buildings in two cities. One drone crashed into a residential high-rise in the city of Saratov, and another hit a residential building in the city of Engels, local officials said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that a total of 22 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight and in the morning over eight Russian regions, including the Saratov and Yaroslavl regions in central Russia.