Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, with a large barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Airstrike warnings rang out across the country and 10 Ukrainian oblasts got here under fire, said the country’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
In recent days, Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukraine, carrying out several attacks rocket fire on the capital Kiev, and strikes on energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian air attacks on Russians border region of Belgorod. Such sporadic attacks, nonetheless, were common throughout the war.
Widespread power outages have already hit Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where a drone and missile attack left 700,000 people without power on March 22 after a municipal thermal power plant was hit by drone and missile attacks.
Winter 2022–2023 Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent power outages. Many people in Ukraine and the West expected that Russia might repeat this strategy this winter, but as an alternative Russia initially focused its attacks on Ukraine’s defense industry.
Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, said Friday’s attack deliberately targeted thermal and hydroelectric power plants in central and western regions.
In an announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian hydropower plants in Kanov and Dniester had been attacked and accused Moscow of the chance of an ecological disaster much like this one. destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June 2023
Both Kiev and Moscow they accused the opposite of destroying the damnonetheless, various Russian allegations – that it was hit by a missile or shot down by explosives – don’t explain an explosion so powerful that it was recorded by a seismic monitor within the region.
(*99*) destruction of the dam led to deadly floods, threatened crops, threatened drinking water supplies for 1000’s of individuals and caused ecological disaster.
Zelensky also warned that other countries can be at risk if the dams were hit. (*99*) Dniester Hydroelectric Power Plant, positioned near the town of Novodnestrovsk in Ukraine, is roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Moldova.
“Not only Ukraine is at risk, but also Moldova,” Zelensky said. “The water will not stop before the border.”
DTEK, the biggest private electricity operator in Ukraine, also said that three of its thermal power plants were damaged within the attacks. An emergency power outage was announced in Odessa, leaving several districts without electricity.
Five people, including a 5-year-old girl, were injured in an attack in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Sergei Lysak said.
He later said one other person was killed and one other injured in a separate drone attack on Friday.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian police said rescuers found the body of a 66-year-old woman in a constructing within the Mykolaiv Oblast that was hit by a Russian missile on Thursday evening.
(*99*) bombing in western Ukraine caused the Polish Armed Forces to launch their very own aircraft, the country’s operational command reported on social media.
Last week, Warsaw demanded explanations from Moscow after certainly one of its missiles briefly entered Polish airspace during a serious missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the NATO member to launch F-16 fighter jets.
Romania’s defense ministry also said Friday that an investigation had been launched after fragments appearing to return from a drone were identified on Romanian territory on Thursday evening in a farming area of Braila district, near the border with Ukraine.
It didn’t provide additional details, although since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine began, NATO member Romania has confirmed that fragments of drones of their territory on several occasions.
On Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on social media that Belgorod was also under fire. He said he shot down 15 Ukrainian missiles and that falling debris damaged many residential buildings. No casualties were reported.
(*99*) region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, later said on social media that one person was killed in a separate drone strike that struck an apartment constructing.
