In the same wave of Tu-95MS and Tu-160M strategic bomber strikes, roughly 20 Kh-101 cruise missiles targeted the Ladyzhyn Thermal Power Plant in Vinnytsia Oblast alongside additional hits on the Kryvyi Rih plant in Zelenodolsk. Monitoring channels reported that Ukrainian air defenses failed to intercept the vast majority of the incoming cruise and ballistic missiles amid a critical shortage of air defense interceptors. Earlier in the barrage of more than 80 missiles, an opening salvo of 29 ground launched Iskander-M, KN-23, Zircon and Oniks-M missiles struck six power plants without a single interception, hitting the Ladyzhyn, Prydniprovska and Kryvyi Rih sites as well as Kharkiv’s TEC-5 and Zmiivska thermal plants and the Kaniv Hydroelectric Power Plant in Cherkasy Oblast.

The missile assault followed a 72 hour campaign of more than 2,000 Geran-2, Geran-4 and Geran-5 drones against energy and railway infrastructure that exhausted Ukrainian air defenses. In the hours before the missile launches, more than 250 drones hit targets in western Ukraine including the Dnistrovska Hydroelectric Power Plant and 330 kV substations in Chernivtsi and Zhytomyr, cutting power to most of Zhytomyr city and reducing internet connectivity in Zhytomyr Oblast to 48% of normal levels. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that Russia had launched 1,940 attack drones, more than 1,580 guided aerial bombs and 44 missiles in the past week while urging US and European partners to speed deliveries of Patriot interceptors.