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June 22, 2024 – 15:57
Russia launched a new “massive” attack against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and carried out bombings in the south and east of the country that left at least seven dead, Ukrainian authorities reported this Saturday.
This is the eighth “massive” attack against Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the last three months, indicated the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported an attack “with long-range and high-precision weapons from the air and sea” and with “drones”, with the aim of hitting “Ukrainian energy facilities that feed weapons production.”
He also noted that arsenals of weapons “provided by Western countries to the Ukrainian army” were attacked. “All the objectives set were achieved,” he added.
The Ukrainian army reported that Russia launched a total of 16 missiles and 13 drones against its energy infrastructure. The anti-aircraft defense shot down all but four, he added.
Russian bombings damaged “equipment at Ukrenergo facilities [el operador eléctrico] in the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Lviv,” said the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy.
Russia has systematically attacked the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, invaded by Moscow in February 2022, causing lasting damage to critical facilities.
But in recent months, kyiv has also claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against refineries and oil depots not only in Russia’s border regions, but in areas hundreds of kilometers from its territory.
– Russian bombings in the south and east –
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy reported two injuries in Zaporizhzhia, an area partially occupied by Moscow and where Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is located.
The bombing also killed one person and destroyed a residential building in the area, the regional military administration reported.
Russian attacks on energy infrastructure have crippled Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity and forced kyiv to import supplies from the European Union or impose cuts.
Russia has already destroyed half of Ukraine’s energy capacity, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
In the face of electricity cuts, Zelensky urged on Thursday to install solar panels in “every school and every hospital” “as soon as possible.”
The CEO of the Ukrainian operator DTEK, Maxim Timchenko, warned that Ukraine will suffer “a serious crisis this winter” if its Western allies do not mobilize.
Ukraine is demanding help to rebuild its electricity grid, which requires significant investments.
Moscow and kyiv accused each other on Saturday of deadly bombings on both sides of the border.
In Kharkiv, in the northeast of the former Soviet republic, at least two people were killed and 15 injured in a Russian bombing, regional governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on Telegram.
Further south, in the Donetsk area, also partially occupied by Russia, five people were killed in Russian bombings in the last 24 hours, said Vadym Filashkin, the head of the region.
Three other men who worked for a construction company were killed in a bombing in the area occupied by Moscow, according to the head of the authorities installed by Russia in this region, Denis Pushilin.
In the Kherson region, in the south, a drone killed a police officer guarding a checkpoint, the armed force itself reported.
In the Russian region of Belgorod, a man was killed by the bombing of an agribusiness near the border with the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
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