KYIV  -  Russia on Sunday pummelled Ukraine with a “massive” aerial bar­rage of missiles and drones, killing at least nine people across the country in the largest attack in months that Kyiv branded “hellish”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting the cap­ital as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country.

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions in what officials in Kyiv called it one of the biggest barrages of the almost three-year long Russian invasion. The devastation comes at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine’s east and with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House raising fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.

“A hellish night,” the spokesman for Ukraine’s airforce Yuriy Ignat said on social media, adding that Kyiv downed “144 targets”. The giant at­tack followed two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Rus­sian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, call­ing on the Kremlin chief to end Mos­cow’s devastating offensive. Kyiv had slammed Scholz for reaching out to Putin and Sunday said the attack was the Kremlin’s real answer.

“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently,” Ukrainian For­eign Minister Andriy Sybiga said after the attack. “We need peace through strength, not appeasement.” Scholz on Sunday defended the call and insisted that Berlin’s backing for Kyiv was un­wavering. “Ukraine can count on us,” the German leader said ahead of flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, promising that “no decision will be taken behind Ukraine’s back” on ending the conflict.

But Poland’s prime minister joined the backlash on Sunday. “No-one will stop Putin with phone calls. The at­tack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone di­plomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine,” Donald Tusk wrote on X. The strikes caused massive power cuts across the country, with fears of a precarious winter to come. “A massive attack on our country,” Zelensky said.

“Over the past week, the aggressor used nearly 140 missiles of various types, more than 900 guided aerial bombs, and over 600 strike drones,” he said, accusing Moscow of try­ing to “intimidate us with cold and blackouts”. AFP journalists heard ex­plosions in the early morning in Kyiv and close to Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. Moscow, meanwhile, said it had hit all its targets, claiming it had targeted an “essential energy infra­structure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”. But ci­vilian deaths were reported across the country. Officials in Kherson said a 51-year-old woman was killed by a drone. In the southern Mykolaiv re­gion, local leader Vitaliy Kim said two women were killed in a night attack and that seven people -- including two children -- were wounded.