Russia launched 27 Shahed kamikaze drones against Ukrainian territory that were shot down entirely by air defenses and 9 missiles of different types, of which 5 were intercepted, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Thursday (06/20/2024). This is a new massive attack that targeted the Ukrainian electrical system.
According to the private electricity sector company DTEK, one of its thermal plants was hit in the attack. Since last March, DTEK has lost 90 percent of its generation capacity in Russian attacks. “Another difficult night for the Ukrainian energy industry. The Russians attacked one of DTEK’s thermal power plants,” the company said in a statement, adding that the attack caused “serious damage” and injured three employees. And he added that this is the seventh “massive” attack against Ukrainian power plants in three months.
Another company, the public company Ukrenergo, has also reported damaged infrastructure as a result of this new night attack in the oblasts of kyiv (north), Dnipropetrovsk (center), Donetsk (east) and Vinitisia (west). Although, he added, “the extent” of the damage is still being clarified.
Russia says energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target and denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure. Since March 22, it has launched successive massive attacks against the Ukrainian electricity sector that have destroyed around half of Ukraine’s generating capacity. Ukrainian authorities have been forced to introduce daily scheduled blackouts across the country due to the resulting power deficit.
Ukraine also launched a drone attack today against Russian territory. The attacks targeted, as is also usual, especially against oil deposits, the authorities indicated. “In the evening, an attempt by the kyiv regime to carry out aerial drone attacks against sites on Russian territory was prevented,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. Among the sites attacked was the city of Slavyansk, in the southern Krasnodar region, where a woman died, said Governor Venyamin Kondratyev.
gs/lgc (efe, afp, rtr)
