Sawt Falasteen - Putin says barrage 'response' to West-supplied missiles

Pledging Moscow would always respond to Ukraine's use of US-supplied ATACMS missiles, Putin said his military was considering a strike on the heart of Kyiv in retaliation to any future attacks.

Moscow launched almost 200 missiles and drones targeting Ukraine's energy grid, with President Volodymyr Zelensky alleging "cluster munitions" were fired in what he called a "despicable escalation" almost three years into the war.

More than a million homes in western Ukraine were temporarily without power after the strikes as the country's energy operator announced emergency blackouts on Thursday.

"We carried out a comprehensive strike," Putin told allies during a visit to Kazakhstan several hours after the attack.

"It was a response to continued attacks on our territory by (US) ATACMS missiles," he said in the televised remarks.

"As I have said repeatedly, there will always be a response from our side," he added.

He said the Russian military command was selecting targets to hit in Ukraine, threatening that future strikes could target government buildings in Kyiv.

Putin also claimed Russia knew how many long-range weapons were given to Kyiv and where they were located.

But the Kremlin leader refrained from repeating his previous threat that Russia considered military targets in Western countries that supply weapons to Ukraine legitimate targets for possible Russian strikes.

- 'Despicable escalation' -

Ukraine is bracing for a tough winter as Moscow steps up its aerial bombardment and its troops advance on the frontlines in the east.

Tensions have ratcheted up over the last few weeks as both sides are looking to secure the upper hand on the battlefield ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as US president in January.

Ukraine's emergency services said the Russian overnight strikes inflicted damage in 14 regions across the country.

"In several regions, strikes with cluster munitions were recorded, and they targeted civilian infrastructure," Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

"This is a very despicable escalation of Russian terrorist tactics," he added.

He also pressured Western leaders to deliver more air defence systems to protect against Russian strikes through winter.

Ukraine's air force said it downed 79 of 91 missiles fired by Russia overnight.

It also said it downed 35 of 97 drones, with the rest "lost" from radar screens or downed by electronic jamming defensive systems.

But at least some of the missiles hit their targets, Ukrainian officials admitted.

- 'Harshest' -

More than half a million subscribers in the western Lviv region were cut off from electricity, with another 280,000 in the western Rivne region and 215,000 in the northwestern Volyn region, officials said.

At around 12:00 pm (1000 GMT), Ukrenergo said emergency power cuts had been lifted, though scheduled regional outages remained in place.

AFP journalists in the capital Kyiv heard blasts ring out over the capital overnight as air defence systems targeted Russian drones and missiles, with locals crowding into the underground metro system for cover.

Putin said Russia launched more than 90 missiles and 100 drones, and claimed 17 targets had been hit, with the Russian leader rarely giving such numbers.

The energy ministry said it was the 11th massive Russian attack on Ukraine's civilian energy infrastructure this year.

A senior UN official, Rosemary DiCarlo, this month warned Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure may make this winter the "harshest since the start of the war".

- Missile threats -

Speaking in Astana at a summit for the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), Putin also boasted about the power of Russia's new hypersonic Oreshnik missile.

The Kremlin chief said the ballistic missile could turn anything "into dust" and that several of the weapons fired together would be "comparable to a nuclear strike."

Russia fired the missile in a strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week after Kyiv's first strike on Russian territory using ATACMS.

Putin said Thursday the Oreshnik could travel "around three kilometres per second" and that its elements could reach a temperature almost "like the surface of the sun."

"If there were more strikes on Russian territory, we will be responding, including with possible (more) testing of Oreshniks in combat conditions," he said.

U.Shaheen--SF-PST