After a day when Russian missiles attacked his whole nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recognized that most regions were experiencing power outages. Still, he stated that the damage would have been more significant without "heroic" air defense.

Thursday night, Zelenskiy said in a video address that air commands in Ukraine's central, southern, eastern, and western regions destroyed 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones during one of Russia's most significant aerial attacks since the conflict began February.

Zelenskiy stated that the capital Kyiv, Odesa, and Kherson in the south and adjacent districts, as well as the region around Lviv near the western border with Poland, were among the areas where power outages were "especially difficult."

"But this is nothing compared with what could have happened if it were not for our heroic anti-aircraft troops and air defense," he stated.

Five hours of air raid sirens blasted out in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. Emergency personnel was seen sifting through the smoldering rubble of residential buildings in Kyiv that were destroyed by an explosion and missile smoke trails. Earlier reports indicated that more than 120 missiles were launched during Thursday's assault.

More than 18 residential buildings and ten critical infrastructure assets were destroyed in recent strikes, according to a statement from the military ministry.

In recent months, waves of Russian airstrikes against energy infrastructure have left millions without power and heating in frequently frigid weather.

Battlefield

Ukraine's tiny armed forces have won multiple wins against the invading Russian forces, but Zelenskiy has been pleading with Western nations for air defense assistance for months. In this regard, the United States announced roughly $2 billion in additional military help last week, including the Patriot Air Defense System, which provides defense from aircraft, cruise, and ballistic missiles.

Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but Ukraine claims that its daily shelling is destroying cities, villages, and the country's electricity, medical, and other infrastructure.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 in what President Vladimir Putin termed a "special military operation" to rid the country of neo-nazi military units oppressing Russian-speaking minorities and because it views a NATO-aligned and western-aligned Ukraine as a threat to its border since the 2014 violent coup there.

Ukraine and its Western allies have labeled Russia's moves as an imperialist territorial grab and levied sanctions against the nation.

The most intense fighting is still in the eastern frontier towns of Bakhmut and Soledar in Donetsk province, one of four districts Russia claimed in September to have occupied. Luhansk is in the east, while Kherson and Zaporizhia are in the south.

Russian forces do not fully control any of the four areas in Ukraine, despite the Kremlin's assertion that they are making progress toward one of their declared primary objectives of "demilitarizing" the country.

Russia is seeking a battlefield victory in eastern Ukraine and has spent months attempting to seize Bakhmut.

Russia "has not abandoned the insane idea of capturing the Donetsk region," claimed Zelenskiy on Thursday evening.

Donetsk, which along with Luhansk, makes up the industrial core of Russian-speaking Donbas and a portion of which was captured by Russia-backed separatists in 2014, remains under Ukrainian control. Russia also annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in the same year.