Zaluzhny said that 54 of the 69 incoming Russian missiles and explosive drones had been shot down across the country. Regional authorities, including in the northern Sumy region and the southern Mykolaiv province near the Black Sea, also reported that attacks were intercepted.
But some still reached their targets, disrupting power and water supplies. The barrage threatens to exacerbate an increasing humanitarian crisis across Ukraine amid harsh winter conditions.
Raining fragments of intercepted Russian missiles damaged two private buildings, an industrial facility and a playground in neighborhoods across Kyiv, according to city officials. No casualties were immediately reported.
Multiple explosions also took place in Kharkiv in the country’s east, and in the city of Lviv near its western border with Poland, according to their mayors.
The blasts also left 90% of Lviv without power and halted all trams and trolley buses, and residents might experience water interruptions, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram.
Authorities in Dnipro, Odesa and Kryvyi Rih braced for the attacks on Thursday, switching off electricity in their regions early in the day to minimize any damage to critical infrastructure if they were hit by Russian shelling.
The ongoing bombardment came as efforts for peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow gained no ground.
Earlier this month, the United States agreed to give a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to boost its defense. The U.S. and other allies also pledged to provide energy-related equipment to help Ukraine withstand the attacks on its infrastructure.
Ukraine has said it will never cede its soil and has signaled it will not accept Moscow’s conditions. Podolyak said Thursday that Russia was aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”