Moscow launched a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, using 99 drones and missiles across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine and 10 regions in Ukraine were hit.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine in recent days and launched multiple attacks. Missiles hit the capital Kiev, and attacked energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian air strikes against Russia Belgorod border region. However, such sporadic attacks were common throughout the war.
A large-scale power outage has occurred in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. On March 22, the city’s thermal power plant was attacked by drones and missiles, causing 700,000 people to lose power.
Winter 2022-23, Russia Targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent power outages. Many in Ukraine and the West expected Russia might repeat the strategy this winter, but Russia initially focused its strikes on Ukraine’s defense industry.
Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo said Friday’s attack deliberately targeted thermal and hydroelectric power plants in central and western regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in a statement that Ukraine’s Kaniv and Transnistria hydroelectric power plants had been attacked and accused Moscow of risking a similar ecological disaster in Ukraine. Kakhovka dam destroyed June 2023.
Kyiv and Moscow Accusing the other party of destroying the damBut Russia’s various accusations – that it was hit by a missile or brought down by explosives – fail to account for the explosion being so powerful that it was recorded by seismic monitors in the area.
this damage to dam Causing deadly floods, endangering crops, threatening drinking water supplies for thousands of people, and releasing Environmental disaster.
Zelensky also warned that other countries would be threatened if the dam was attacked. The Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant is located near the Ukrainian city of Novodnistrovsk, approximately 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Moldovan border.
“Not only Ukraine is threatened, but Moldova is also threatened,” Zelensky said. “The water does not stop at the border.”
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power operator, also said that three of its thermal power plants were damaged in the attack. It declared an emergency power outage in the city of Odessa, leaving several communities without power.
Serhii Lysak, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, said five people were injured, including a 5-year-old girl.
He later said another man was killed and another wounded in another drone strike on Friday.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian police said rescuers found the body of a 66-year-old woman in a building hit by a Russian missile in the Nikolayev region on Thursday night.
The Ukrainian Combat Command said on social media that bombing in western Ukraine caused the Polish armed forces to scramble their own aircraft.
Last week, Warsaw demanded an explanation from Moscow after a missile was launched Briefly strayed into Polish airspace During a major missile attack on Ukraine, NATO members were prompted to activate F-16 fighter jets.
Romania’s Defense Ministry also said on Friday that an investigation had been launched after debris that appeared to have come from a drone was found in a farming area in Romania’s Braila county near the Ukrainian border on Thursday night.
It gave no further details, but since Russia began a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, NATO member Romania has confirmed drone debris on its territory Several times.
Belgorod was also attacked on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry wrote on social media. It is said to have shot down 15 Ukrainian artillery shells, and the falling debris damaged some residential buildings. No injuries were reported.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gradkov later said on social media that another drone attack killed a man at an apartment building.
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