Russia launched its largest drone strike on Ukraine overnight with 188 drones, Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 76 Russian drones in the overnight attacks that targeted areas across the country and damaged critical infrastructure facilities.

The air force said Russia also used four missiles in the aerial assault.

“Unfortunately, there were hits to critical infrastructure facilities, and private and apartment buildings were damaged in several regions due to the massive drone attack,” according to an air force statement.

The attack coincided with a push by Russia on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Russia claimed to have gained nearly 240 square kilometers in the past week, for a total of about 600 square kilometers in November, Reuters reported, citing the Russian army and other analysts.

For its part, Ukraine reporting repelling Russian troops from Kupiansk, a logistical center in Kharkiv, for the third time, according to Reuters.

“The only effective way to protect ourselves from this is to eliminate Russian weapons and Russian launchers directly on Russian territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

“That is why the ability to strike Russian territory is so important to us. This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and Russia’s capacity to wage war in general,” he added.

Countries that have given Ukraine weapons to fight Russia have been reluctant to give Ukraine permission to launch those weapons directly into Russia, but Zelenskyy said he is “grateful to all the partners who understand this and convey it to other partners.”

“Nearly 200 Russian drones against Ukraine in one day — that is nearly 200 proofs that Russian ambitions are utterly detached from any ideas of real peace,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s president said rescue operations are still underway in Sumy, where Russia’s barrage of drones targeted a vehicle service station. The president said two people had been killed in Sumy and “one person is likely still trapped under the rubble.”

Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones in the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions.

The power grid of Ternopil in western Ukraine, about 134 miles east of Poland was hit in the attack.

“The consequences are bad because the facility was significantly affected and this will have impact on the power supply of the entire region for a long time,” the governor of Tenopil, Vyacheslav Nehoda, said in a televised address.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Telegram that one drone hit the center of Nikopol.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it shot down 39 Ukrainian aerial drones overnight.

Most of the drones were shot down over the Rostov region, with other intercepts taking place over Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol, Voronezh and Russia-occupied Crimea.

Officials in Rostov, Bryansk and Voronezh said on Telegram there were no reports of damage or casualties from the attacks.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.

Source: voanews.com