With a fresh barrage of missiles on Monday, Russia was accused by Ukraine of demolishing houses in the southeast and shutting out electricity in numerous regions, while Moscow said Ukrainian drones had targeted two air sites deep within Russia hundreds of kilometres from the front lines.

It happened right when the emergency blackouts were about to finish and the prior damage was being rectified in Ukraine, where a new missile bombardment had been predicted for days. With temperatures now firmly below 0 degrees Celsius, the strikes returned several areas of Ukraine to a deep freeze (32 Fahrenheit).

The Russian attacks resulted in at least four fatalities, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who also noted that the majority of the 70 or so missiles were shot down. According to him, energy personnel had already started to restore power supply.

According to the Russian defence ministry, Ukrainian drones attacked two air bases in the south-central Russian cities of Ryazan and Saratov, killing three military personnel and injuring four others. Two aircraft were also damaged when the drones were shot down because of drone fragments.

The assaults were not specifically blamed on Ukraine. Since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, if it were behind them, they would be the most intense strikes inside the Russian heartland.

The Engels airport near Saratov, which is around 730 kilometres (450 miles) southeast of Moscow, is one of the targets and is home to bomber aircraft used by Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons.

Russian defence ministry: “The Kyiv government attempted to attack the military airfields Dyagilevo in the Ryazan area and Engels in the Saratov region using unmanned jet aerial vehicles built in the Soviet Union in order to cripple Russian long-range aircraft.”

According to the report, the drones were shot down by air defences as they were flying at low altitudes. 185 kilometres (115 miles) southeast of Moscow, on the Ryazan base, there were recorded fatalities.

The drone attacks were described by the Russian defence ministry as a “terrorist” act meant to interfere with its long-range aircraft.

However, the ministry claimed that in response, Russia launched a “massive strike on the military control system and related objects of the defences complex, communication centres, energy, and military units of Ukraine with high-precision air- and sea-based weapons,” in which it claimed that all 17 specified targets were hit.