Russia has launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv’s foreign minister said on November 17, with drones and missiles targeting energy infrastructure and other civilian sites in cities across the country, prompting neighboring Poland to scramble fighter jets. “Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure. This is war criminal [President Vladimir] Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently.
We need peace through strength, not appeasement,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X. Explosions were reported early on November 17 in the capital of Kyiv as well as other cities across the country, including Odesa on the Black Sea coast and the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Russia's missile attack targeted power infrastructure across Ukraine, forcing the launch of preventive outages, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said.
The massive attack comes as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds towards its 1,000 th day. Russia is expending huge amounts of weaponry and human life to make small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls. Ukraine, meanwhile, is struggling to minimize losses, maintain morale, and convince allies that, with more military aid, it can turn the tide.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he could quickly end the war, though it is unclear .
