Ukraine introduces preventive power cuts after massive Russian missile attack

INA-  SOURCES


Russia launched a large-scale missile attack targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure on Wednesday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force reported.

Ukraine introduced preventative power cuts after Russia launched a massive aerial attack against the country on Wednesday, Ukraine's energy minister said.

“The enemy continues to terrorise Ukrainians,” Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook, urging residents to stay in shelters and follow official updates.

Regional authorities said one man was killed in Kharkiv and a total of 16 people injured in Russian attacks over the day. In Kramatorsk, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, eight people including two children were injured in a strike on a multi-storey residential building.

Russia's Defence Ministry didn't give locations of details on the strike, but said that it targeted “critically important facilities of gas and energy infrastructure that ensure the functioning of Ukraine’s military industrial complex.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Air Force said the attacks consisted of 43 missiles and 74 drones overnight, adding that a total of 30 missiles and 47 drones were shot down and 27 drones failed to reach their target, it said.

The Russian missiles sought out targets from the Lviv region in western Ukraine near Poland to Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine bordering Russia.

The state energy company Ukrenergo reported emergency power outages in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad regions.


Constant strain on energy infrastructure
The attack comes just one day after the Russian Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of firing multiple Western-made missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, claiming in an online statement that the attack “will not go unanswered.”

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday that Ukraine launched its "most massive" attack against Russian military and industrial facilities.

He added that Ukrainian forces struck as deep as 1,100 kilometres inside Russia, targeting oil storage, refinery, chemical and ammunition plants in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula and Tatarstan regions.

Russian forces have repeatedly targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure over the almost three-year war, plunging the country into darkness during its often bitterly cold winter months.


Last September, the UN refugee agency reported that Ukraine had lost more than an estimated 60% of its energy generation capacity.

Wednesday's attack too seemed to confirm that Russia was deliberately targeting Ukraine's energy capacity. “It is the middle of the winter, and Russia’s goal remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure,” said Zelenskyy on Telegram following the attack.

He urged Western partners to provide Ukraine with additional air defence weapons, emphasising that “promises have been made but not yet fully realised.”

Russian forces launched missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure in the western Lviv region early Wednesday, said the city’s mayor, Andrii Sadovyi.

“During the morning attack, enemy cruise missiles were recorded in the region,” he said.

Lviv regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said Russia hit and damaged two infrastructure facilities in the area of Drohobych and Stryi. No casualties were reported, he added.




SOURCE: EURO NEWS