KYIV: In a massive airstrike early on Wednesday, Russian missiles and drones targeted about a dozen Ukrainian critical infrastructure installations, seriously damaging three thermal power plants built during the Soviet era, according to Kyiv officials.
More than two years after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the air force claimed to have shot down 39 out of 55 missiles and 20 out of 21 attack drones utilized in the assault. This puts additional strain on the country’s already vulnerable energy infrastructure.
“Another massive attack on our energy industry!” German Galushchenko, the Minister of Energy, posted on the Telegram app.
According to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, there were two injuries in the Kyiv region and one in the Kirovohrad region.
According to him, about 350 rescuers were rushing to limit the harm done to 30 houses, a fire station, autos, public transportation, and other energy facilities.
Galushchenko stated that the targets were power generation and transmission facilities in the provinces of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia.
The attack on vital energy infrastructure was the most recent in a string of assaults that started in March.
Although the attacks have already compelled authorities to implement rolling blackouts in a number of areas, their full effect is probably going to be felt later in the year, as energy consumption peaks in the winter and summer.
With the exception of the southeast of Zaporizhzhia, all of those areas are remote from the eastern front lines, where Russia has been gaining ground and there is intense fighting.
As part of a wartime secrecy policy that Kyiv claims is necessary to stop Russia from utilizing the knowledge for further bombings, Galushchenko did not identify the targeted infrastructure.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Lviv governor Maksym Kozytskyi claimed that Russia also targeted a natural gas storage facility in his area of the west of the nation.
Moscow refrained from commenting right away. Although it considers the Ukrainian energy system to be a valid military target, Russia denies targeting civilians.
Memorial Day
The airstrikes coincided with Ukraine’s commemoration of its victory over Nazism in World War Two, a point that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy emphasized in a Telegram speech in addition to the invasion in February 2022.
“The world slept through the 5 a.m. on February 24, 2022, resurgence of Nazism. And anybody who survived the Second World War and recalls it now experiences déjà vu,” he remarked.
Without giving any information, grid operator Ukrenergo stated on Telegram that equipment at one of its plants in central Ukraine had been damaged.
Poltava Regional Governor Filip Pronin posted on Telegram that a drone struck an energy infrastructure plant in the central region of Poltava, causing it to catch fire.
Preliminary reports indicate that no one was injured.
Without giving any information, the governors of the regions of Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia independently declared that important civilian infrastructure facilities had been damaged.
The chief of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, stated on Telegram that all missiles aimed against the city had been destroyed. He clarified that the strike did not cause any significant harm or casualties.
According to local officials, many explosions occurred in the Lviv region, which borders NATO member Poland, and air defense systems were apparently involved in fending off the Russian strike.
