KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The Russian government launched a major attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, saying a massive barrage of 99 drones and missiles hit areas across the country. announced by the military.
Air raid sirens were sounded across Ukraine and 10 regions of the country came under shelling, the country’s Interior Minister Ihor Klimenko said.
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Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent days, firing several missile barrages at the capital Kiev and attacking energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian airstrikes on the Russian border region of Belgorod. is attacking. However, such sporadic attacks have been frequent throughout the war.
A child climbs onto a rusty armored personnel carrier as part of an exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Vadim Gilda)
A large-scale power outage has already occurred in the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where 700,000 people were left without power after its thermal power plant was attacked by drones and missiles on March 22.
In the winter of 2022-23, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent power outages. Ukraine and many in the West expected Russia to repeat the same strategy this winter, initially focusing its attacks on Ukraine’s defense industry.
Ukraine’s state power grid operator Ukrenergo said Friday’s attack deliberately targeted thermal and hydropower plants in the central and western regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged in a statement that Ukraine’s Karniv and Dniester hydropower plants were attacked, putting them at risk of an ecological disaster similar to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in June 2023. He accused Russia of being
Both Kiev and Moscow have accused the other of destroying the dam, but various Russian claims that the dam was hit with a missile or destroyed with explosives are recorded on regional earthquake monitors. cannot explain such a powerful explosion.
The destruction of dams caused deadly flooding, endangered crops, threatened drinking water supplies for thousands of people, and created an environmental catastrophe.
President Zelenskiy also warned that other countries would be threatened if the dam was destroyed. The Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant is located near the Ukrainian city of Novodnistlovsk, approximately 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Moldova.
“Not only Ukraine but also Moldova are under threat,” President Zelensky said. “The water doesn’t stop in front of the border.”
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power company, also announced that three of its thermal power plants were damaged in the attack. An emergency power outage was announced in the city of Odesa, leaving several areas without power.
Five people, including a five-year-old girl, were injured in the attack in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Serhiy Lysak announced.
He later said another man was killed and another person injured in a separate drone attack on Friday.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian police said Thursday night that rescuers had recovered the body of a 66-year-old woman from a building in the Mykolaiv region that was hit by a Russian missile.
Artillery shelling in western Ukraine caused the Polish military to scramble its aircraft, the country’s operational command announced on social media.
Warsaw last week demanded an explanation from Moscow after a missile briefly deviated into Polish airspace during a major missile attack on Ukraine, prompting the NATO member state to activate its F-16 fighter jets. demanded.
Romania’s Ministry of Defense also announced on Friday that it had launched an investigation after debris believed to be from a drone was seen on Romanian territory on Thursday night in an agricultural area in Braila County, near the border with Ukraine.
Although it did not provide additional details, Romania, a NATO member, has seen drone debris within its territory several times since Russia began its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
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On Friday, Belgorod also came under shelling, the Russian Ministry of Defense wrote on social media. It was announced that 15 Ukrainian military shells had been shot down, and the falling debris damaged many homes. No casualties were reported.
Local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov later announced on social media that another drone attack on an apartment resulted in the death of one man. ___
