War in Ukraine | Russian attack with more than 130 drones leaves one dead and eight injured, says Kyiv

(Kyiv) Ukraine announced Friday that it had been targeted by 132 Russian drones during the night, an attack which left one dead and eight injured, the day after massive strikes targeting the country’s energy infrastructure.

Since Thursday evening, “the enemy attacked Ukraine with 132 drones” of which 88 were shot down, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement.

According to her, 41 other drones disappeared from radars, “probably” due to jamming by the Ukrainian army and another “returned to Russia”.

The devices destroyed were over around ten regions, notably those of Kherson and Odessa, in the south.

In the city of Kherson, a woman was killed by one of the Russian drones, the head of the municipal administration said.

“Seven people were injured” in the Odessa region, according to the Interior Ministry.

In Kyiv, the capital, a medical center was hit and its guard injured, according to the city’s military administration.

After almost three years of Russian invasion of Ukraine, the conflict has been escalating for two weeks.

On Thursday, Russia fired nearly 90 missiles targeting Ukrainian power facilities, plunging more than a million people into darkness in near-zero temperatures.

As of Friday morning, Kherson and part of the neighboring Mykolaiv region were still without electricity, national operator Ukrenergo said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Thursday’s massive strikes were his “response” to the Ukrainian army’s firing of American ATACMS and British Storm Shadow missiles against Russian soil.

The Ukrainian army, for its part, announced on Friday that it had struck an oil depot in the Russian region of Rostov (South), without specifying what weapons had been used.

Already targeted by a Ukrainian strike this summer, this site called Atlas “is part of the Russian military-industrial complex which supplies petroleum products to the Russian army”, indicated the Ukrainian general staff.

The Russian governor of this region, Yuri Sliousar, reported on Telegram a “massive air attack” from Ukraine during the night, ensuring that 30 drones had been destroyed or neutralized.

Two hours later, he reported a “large fire on an industrial site” in the area where the depot is located, without however naming it and without specifying whether this incident was linked to the attack.

The Russian army, for its part, claimed the capture of two villages in eastern Ukraine, where its troops have accelerated their advances since this fall.