Ukraine says it has new homegrown long-range weapon to hit deep into Russia without Western permission

Ukraine says it has a new long-range weapon to strike deep into Russia without asking permission from allies — a homegrown combination of missile and drone that the defense minister vowed Monday would provide “answers” to a wave of Russian bombings.

The Palianytsia was created due to urgent necessity, Ukrainian officials said, as Russia has dominated the skies since the outbreak of the war in February 2022 and Ukraine’s Western allies have placed conditions on use of their long-range missiles in Russia. On Monday, a wave of Russian missiles and drones targeted Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure in the largest such attack in weeks.

“Defenders of life should have no restrictions on weapons, as long as Russia uses all kinds of its own weapons,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram message following the attacks.

Zelenskyy confirmed on Saturday the existence of the Palianytsia, named after a type of Ukrainian bread and a word so notoriously difficult to pronounce correctly that it was used to unmask suspected spies early in the war. The Ukrainian president called it “a new class” of weapon.

Saturday, which marked Ukraine’s 33rd anniversary of independence from the former Soviet Union, also saw the first use of the new weapon, targeting a Russian military installation in the occupied territory, officials said without providing details.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov promised Monday the weapon would be used again soon in response to the overnight attack on Ukraine.

“Ukraine is preparing its response. Weapons of its own production,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “This once again proves that for victory, we need long-range capabilities and the lifting of restrictions on strikes on the enemy’s military facilities.”

A Ukrainian military video hinted that its range is up to 700 kilometers (430 miles) — on par with the U.S.-supplied ATACMS. It showed a map with various airfields, including Russia’s Savasleyka air base, which lies within that range, adding that the Palianytsia can reach at least 20 Russian airfields.

The United States and other Western allies provide long-range weapons to Ukraine but restrict it from launching them deep into Russia for fear of escalating the war. Ukraine can target the border regions but wants to go deeper to attack Russia’s military infrastructure.

Ukraine’s announcement comes after it said Russia fired more than 100 missiles and nearly as many drones at cities across the country on Monday in a massive attack against power infrastructure that caused blackouts and left at least three people dead.

The energy sector has sustained significant damage, Zelenskyy said in a post on the X social media network, calling the strike one of the largest since the Kremlin’s invasion of his country began more than two years ago.

Russia has been stepping up efforts to knock out Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including power, heating and water supplies, before the winter season. The latest attack comes as Kyiv continues its incursion in the Kursk region of Russia, which caught Moscow off guard and has prompted tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes.

President Joe Biden, in a statement on Monday evening, condemned “in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war against Ukraine and its efforts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness.” Biden said that the U.S. was “surging energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems.”

Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday it had targeted gas compressor stations in western Ukraine as well as electric substations and air missile storages across the country.

The attacks affected 15 of Ukraine’s 27 regions, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a post on X, including the capital of Kyiv and the western Lviv region near the border with Poland. The capital’s hydro-power plant was among the targets. Emergency power and water supply cuts were imposed in Kyiv.

“Like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said, adding that most of the country was targeted — from the Kharkiv region and Kyiv to Odesa and the west.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists,” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, adding that the state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said. “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

Zelenskyy also called on Ukraine’s western allies to remove limits on the use of long-range weapons to hit military targets inside Russia and deliver more air defenses and missiles.

“Our defenders cannot be restricted in their weapons when Russia deploys its entire arsenal, including ‘Shaheds’ and ballistic missiles from North Korea,” he said in the post. “America, Britain, France, and our other partners have the power to help us stop this terror.”

One of the Russian drones entered Polish airspace early on Monday and disappeared from radar around 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) deep into its territory. A search operation was on to find the object.

Polish and NATO jets were scrambled to safeguard the country’s airspace, the air force said on the X social media platform, describing the attack as the most intense affecting Western Ukraine since July 8.

Lviv’s regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, warned missiles were approaching Stryi where gas transmission systems and storage infrastructure is located. An air raid alert, which started after midnight, was continued in about half of Ukraine after a brief intermission.

The northwestern city of Lutsk, which has rarely been a target of attacks, was also affected, and a residential house was damaged, local mayor Ihor Polishchuk said, according to Suspilne broadcaster. At least three people were killed in the attack, according to local governments.

“The desire to destroy our energy will cost the Russians dearly,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said on Telegram Monday.

Several districts in Kyiv remained without power and water supply amid the attack due to the “situation in the country’s energy system,” the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on Telegram.

Kozytskyi also said that the power supply was interrupted in Lviv region.

Ukraine’s grid operator imposed urgent power cuts, the country’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said on Facebook. “The situation is difficult, and consequences of the attack are being assessed.”

The Russian Defense Ministry said 20 Ukrainian drones attacked targets overnight in several central regions of Russia. Two multistory apartment buildings in the cities of Saratov and Engels were hit during the strike, according to Saratov regional Governor Roman Busargin. Several people were injured, he said.

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