The attack killed at least 4 people, injured many others and forced the capital Kiev to apply emergency power cuts after the energy infrastructure was seriously damaged.
According to Ukrainian officials and military surveillance channels on social networks, this is Russia's most concentrated and prolonged attack this year.
The operator of the national power grid Ukrenergo said that emergency power cuts have been deployed in Kiev, after the capital's military government confirmed that the city suffered a "short but extremely fierce" attack.
Mr. Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kiev military management agency, said that missiles hit many targets in a very short time, causing damage to important infrastructure. Immediately after that, the power system in some areas of the capital was interrupted to ensure safe operation.
Ukraine's private energy corporation DTEK said one of its thermal power plants was heavily damaged after the attack. "Key equipment at the plant has been destroyed" - DTEK announced, but did not specify the location for security reasons.
Telegram channels specializing in monitoring military activities in Ukraine said that about 20 ballistic missiles were launched in less than 1 hour at night, forming a rare continuous strike since the beginning of the year. These channels described this as the highest-intensity attack maintained since the beginning of the year.
The Ukrainian military has not immediately commented on the full scale of the attack. The Russian side has also not given any official response to the attacks.
In the city of Kharkiv, about 30km from the Russian border and frequently targeted by airstrikes, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said 4 people were killed in the attack on the suburbs. Six others were injured.
The Ukrainian State Emergency Service said that the attack in Kharkiv hit a postal center, destroyed many buildings and caused a series of fires on an area of about 500m2. Rescue forces rescued 30 people, including 2 people trapped under the rubble.
In the port city of Odesa, southern Ukraine, 5 people were injured in overnight attacks. Emergency agencies said a fire broke out at an unused new building, a fitness center and a vocational school.
Meanwhile, in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, 2 people were injured when Russian attacks damaged civil infrastructure, housing and gas pipeline systems.
Since launching a military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted the country's energy system with missiles and drones.
Attacks often increase in winter, aimed at disrupting power and heating, in the context that the Ukrainian air defense system is increasingly under great pressure when dealing with successive air strikes.
