Large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes caused severe damage to several power plants across Ukraine early Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. This is the fifth Russian attack on energy facilities in the past month and a half and is part of a wider campaign aimed at targeting energy facilities. cut power to large swathes of the country And make the lives of civilians miserable.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power company, said in a statement The attacks on three coal-fired power plants further intensified pressure on Ukraine’s power generation capacity, which is already reeling from previous attacks. The company said 80% of its available generation capacity had been damaged or destroyed by the recent attacks.
Ukrenergo, the state power company of Ukraine, Said there might be a power outage As a result, this information was released to some domestic and industrial customers on Wednesday evening. “You have to be prepared for this,” said Ukrenergo chief Volodymyr Kudritskyi. tell ukrainian news media.
These attacks come at a particularly difficult time for Ukraine. With Western aid suspended, the country faces a shortage of anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition, meaning its ability to intercept air strikes is severely compromised.
Latest attack – one day later Vladimir V. Putin sworn in as president of Russia for fifth term It comes just a day before Russia celebrates the anniversary of its victory in World War II – and reflects Mr Putin’s confidence in the current war. His troops now have the upper hand On the battlefield.
Like most European countries, Ukraine commemorates World War II. Ukraine moved the date forward by a day last year in an attempt to break with Soviet-era tradition.
“Today, everyone who remembers World War II and survived to this day will have a sense of déjà vu,” President Volodymyr Zelensky say on social mediacomparing the Nazi and Russian invasions of Ukraine.
“Russia has brought the terrible past back into the daily news, and every new crime is proof that Nazism has been resurrected,” he said in a video that he said was taken from the basement of a building in a village in northern Ukraine. Filmed, Russian troops were there captured all the villagers February 2022 when the invasion begins.
Air-raid sirens blared for hours in Ukrainian cities and villages in the early morning hours on Wednesday as people sought shelter and checked official social media channels to find out which Russian missiles were heading towards them.
this Ukrainian Air Force It was said that the attack involved 55 missiles and 21 drones, and shot down about 70% of the missiles and almost all the drones. Breaking weapons struck energy facilities in central, western and southern Ukraine, including a gas storage facility and a power plant in the western region of Lviv, According to regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi.
A few days ago, Russia shelled power facilities in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, causing more than 400,000 people to temporarily lose power. The country’s power system has been severely damaged by the Russian attack, Ukraine imports 225,000 MWh of electricity Last month’s figure was the highest so far this year and was a third higher than in March, according to the country’s state energy trader Ukraine Energia.
Mykola Bereskov, a military analyst at Ukraine’s government-run National Institute for Strategic Studies, said the attack was aimed at “causing as much suffering as possible to civilians, making life untenable and making the state dysfunctional.”
Ukraine has been pressuring its allies in recent months to provide more anti-aircraft weapons and ammunition, particularly batteries of U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missiles, which are the only ones proven capable of shooting down advanced Russian ballistic missiles system.
Spain said on Monday Promised Patriot missiles have arrived in Ukraine, but it did not specify how many.On Tuesday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis Said he had discussed the possibility Sending Patriot systems to Ukraine during meeting with President Biden at the White House.
But European partners are generally reluctant to give up their limited inventories of advanced air defense systems.and It may take weeks or months This comes ahead of some of the interceptors arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine as part of a recently approved multi-billion-dollar U.S. military aid package.
Maria Valennikova Contributed reporting.
