Russia launches night attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities

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Russia launched a new missile and drone attack in a nighttime raid on Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said on Saturday morning, damaging energy facilities in the southeast and west of the country and injuring at least two energy workers.

In its eighth major attack on Ukrainian power plants since Moscow intensified its attacks on energy infrastructure three months ago, Russia fired 16 missiles and 13 Shahed drones at energy facilities and critical infrastructure, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

The Ukrainian air defense intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles launched by Russia and all 13 drones, the Air Force said.

State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the strikes damaged equipment at plants in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region and western Lviv region.

According to the region’s governor Ivan Fedorov, two energy workers were injured in the Zaporizhia region when a fire broke out at an energy facility.

With no major changes reported along the 1,000-kilometer-long front line and a recent advance by Kremlin forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine achieving only minor successes, both sides have increased their focus on attacks on infrastructure and sought to limit the other’s ability to fight in a war now in its third year.

Moscow’s nighttime attack on Zaporizhia and Lviv was followed by Ukrainian military strikes on three oil refineries in southern Russia on Friday night.

Ukraine is battling a new wave of rolling blackouts after relentless Russian attacks knocked out half the country’s power generation capacity.

In addition, the governor of the partially occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said on Saturday that five people had been killed and seven others injured in Russian attacks the previous day.

A police officer was killed in a Russian drone attack on a checkpoint in the partially occupied Kherson region, the Ukrainian National Police said.

In Russia, air defense systems destroyed five drones overnight over the Sea of ​​Azov and the western regions of Bryansk and Smolensk, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russia said its air defenses shot down numerous drones, including half a dozen that launched a naval attack in the Black Sea.