The Ukrainian Air Force said Moscow fired 34 missiles, of which 21 were shot down.
Kiev:
Russia launched a “massive” missile attack on Ukraine overnight, damaging four power stations in the latest barrage targeting the country’s energy supplies, officials in Kiev said on Saturday.
Moscow has carried out some of its largest-ever attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities in recent months, knocking out a significant portion of production and causing power outages and energy rationing across the country.
Ukraine also fired more than 60 drones into southern Russia overnight, Moscow said, in one of the largest nighttime drone strikes ever recorded. Kiev claimed to have hit two oil refineries and a military air base.
“Russian forces carried out another massive missile attack on Ukraine,” the Ukrainian military said in its regular morning update.
“The enemy has once again attacked the country’s energy infrastructure. In particular, facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions were attacked. There is damage to the equipment,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a Facebook post.
The Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions are located in western Ukraine, bordering the EU and hundreds of kilometers from the front line.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Moscow fired 34 missiles, of which 21 were shot down.
Kiev says Moscow is escalating its attacks from the air and on land ahead of nationwide celebrations on May 9, when Russia marks its victory in World War II, and as Ukraine awaits the arrival of crucial US weapons.
– Energy rationing –
DTEK’s electricity company said equipment at four of its thermal power stations was “severely damaged” during the overnight strikes.
The state-owned electricity company Ukrenergo said it had shut down the main overhead power line in the west of the country as a preventive measure.
Officials asked energy users to limit their energy consumption.
“We ask all consumers to consume electricity sparingly. Industry is asked to maximize electricity imports and use alternative energy sources,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.
The head of the western Lviv region called on residents not to use kettles, irons, washing machines and microwaves between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. to preserve limited energy supplies.
One person was killed in separate shelling on a village close to the Russian border in the northeastern Kharkiv region on Saturday, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.
One person was also killed and eight injured in shelling in the southern Kherson region, Ukraine’s national police said.
The overnight rocket attacks wounded two people in the central city of Kryvy Rih, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said, and wounded one in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services said.
– 68 drones downed –
Ukraine also launched its own massive drone attack on Russia’s southern Krasnodar region overnight.
A Ukrainian defense source told AFP that its drones had hit two oil refineries and a military airfield in the region just east of the annexed Crimean peninsula.
“Ukrainian drones hit the atmospheric distillation columns of the Ilsky and Sloyansky refineries. These are important technological facilities,” the source said.
Russian officials in the Krasnodar region reported a fire at an oil refinery in the Kuban city of Slavyansk.
As a result, the refinery’s operations were suspended, Russian state media reported, citing a company representative.
Videos and photos on social media showed a large fire raging at the site overnight after a series of explosions.
Moscow said earlier that Ukraine had launched one of its largest night-time drone strikes ever on the Krasnodar region.
“Air defense destroyed and intercepted 66 Ukrainian drones over the territory of the Krasnodar region and two over the Crimean Peninsula,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Kiev has hit several Russian oil refineries in the western part of the country in recent months, despite reports in Washington that the strikes could be seen as escalating and could push up global oil prices.
Ukraine says attacking Russia’s vital energy sector is legitimate because it is a source of fuel and money for the Russian military.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
