Russian forces have launched a barrage of missiles and drones across Ukraine that damaged energy infrastructure in five regions, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday the attacks struck facilities in the eastern Donetsk, southeastern Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as the Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk region in the centre and west of the country, respectively.
“Today morning the Russians launched another strike on Ukrainian energy facilities. Since March it is already the sixth massive, complex, missile and drone attack against the civilian energy infrastructure,” Ukrenergo said.
Ukrainian air defence shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 Russian drones, the air force commander said.
The defence ministry of Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, said later on Saturday that its forced that Russia had launched retaliatory strikes with high-precision weapons on Ukraine’s energy facilities operating for its military industrial complex, as well as depots with weapons supplied from Western countries..
Since March, Russia has stepped up its bombardments of the Ukrainian power infrastructure, knocking out the bulk of the thermal and hydropower generation, causing blackouts, and pushing electricity imports to record highs.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy-generating company, said its two thermal power plants had been hit and equipment “seriously damaged”.
Regional officials reported that firefighters were extinguishing fires on several sites following the strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
