Russia  carried out strikes on several Ukrainian military facilities and gas infrastructure, Russia Today reported. Long-range drones and missiles were launched from different platforms overnight, hitting all designated targets, the report said, citing the country’s Ministry of Defence.

Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm, said the strikes were the biggest yet on the country’s gas extraction sites. It called the damage “critical”, adding that around 35 missiles hit facilities in the Kharkiv and Poltava regions, according to Russia Today.

On September 7, Russia carried out its biggest air attack of the Ukraine war, sending over 800 drones and hitting a government building in Kyiv for the first time, CNN reported.

Two people, including an infant, were killed during drone strikes on several residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital, which was under an air-raid siren for 11 hours.

Russia launched a total of 810 drones, four ballistic missiles and nine cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force said. While most were shot down by air defences, 54 drones and nine missiles hit targets across Ukraine, it said.

The latest assault surpasses the size of a July attack that was previously the largest of the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. It also comes after recent attempts by Kyiv’s Western allies to broker a peace deal, as per CNN.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “vile,” saying that “such killings now, when real diplomacy could have started a long time ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war.”

“The world can make the Kremlin’s criminals stop killing, all we need is political will,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called it a “massive attack,” saying the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kremenchuk, and Odesa all came under fire, as well as Kyiv.

(With inputs from ANI)