Russia is bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with its heaviest air strikes in weeks

CNN
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According to local authorities, Russia carried out a “massive” missile attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday night. It was the largest air raid by Russian forces in weeks.

According to Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, Russia used 76 airstrikes in the attack, including 55 missiles and 21 drones fired from Russia and Russian-controlled areas. At least 59 weapons were destroyed overnight, he added.

The attacks targeted electricity generation and transmission facilities in the Ukrainian regions of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia, the country’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced on Telegram.

“The enemy wants to take away our ability to generate and transmit electricity in sufficient quantities. Saving electricity is each of us’s contribution to victory,” said Halushchenko.

At least three people were injured, including a woman and a man with multiple limb injuries and shrapnel wounds who were taken to hospital in the Kyiv region, and an eight-year-old child in the Kirovohrad region, local authorities said.

Moscow has stepped up efforts to cripple Ukraine’s energy system over the past month as Kiev’s troops struggle to hold positions on key frontlines, particularly in the east.

The five-month wait before the U.S. Congress approved $61 billion in military aid to Kiev may have resulted in lasting damage that will be felt on the front lines for months to come.

Russian forces have taken advantage of the “artillery drought” that has hampered Ukraine’s defenses since December to advance on the eastern front near Avdiivka. This was the largest advance since the first months of the war and ahead of an expected Russian offensive at the end of May.

The latest Russian attack hit three thermal power plants of the largest Ukrainian energy company DTEK. It was the fifth time in a month and a half that its infrastructure was attacked. The Ukrainian state grid operator Ukrenergo also reported “damage to generation plants”.

Two critical energy infrastructure facilities in the Lviv region were attacked, one in Chervonohrad district and another in Stryi district, regional military official Maksym Kozytskyi said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “all necessary services are already working to mitigate the consequences of Russian terror.”

“The whole world needs to understand who is who. “The world must not give the new National Socialism a chance,” he added in a post on X.

The attacks come as Ukraine marks the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II on Wednesday.