Kyiv, Ukraine - Ukraine said Friday that it was fending off a new missile attack on its energy system, the latest in Russia's campaign targeting the country's power grid during winter.

Russia has escalated its strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, plunging hundreds of thousands into temporary blackouts amid freezing temperatures.

"The enemy continues its terror. Once again, the energy sector across Ukraine is under massive attack," Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

The air raid alert had been announced since 7:00 AM local time and channels monitoring threats reported missiles over several regions of Ukraine.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had fired more than 90 missiles and deployed almost 200 combat drones.

"This was one of the largest attacks on our power grid," he said.

Russia has conducted at least 11 large-scale strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure since the beginning of the year, according to official figures. To manage the power deficit, Ukraine's energy operator has been implementing hours-long outages. It announced increased restrictions on Friday following the attack.

Moscow acknowledged the attack, saying it was in response to Kyiv firing US-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles at an airfield in southern Russia this week.

"In response to the use of American long-range weapons, a massive strike was carried out by the Russian armed forces... against critical facilities of Ukraine's fuel and energy infrastructure," Russia's defense ministry said in a Telegram post.

The Pentagon warned Thursday that Russia may be preparing to use an experimental hypersonic missile on Ukraine for a second time.