Russia launched a new “massive” missile attack on energy infrastructure in Ukraine overnight, damaging four thermal power plants and causing power outages, Ukrainian officials announced in kyiv on Saturday.
For its part, Moscow said Ukraine had carried out some of the largest drone attacks to date, on Russia’s Krasnodar region and annexed Crimea. kyiv said it had hit two oil refineries and a military air base.
“Russia has staged a new massive missile attack against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian military said in its daily morning update. Moscow fired 34 missiles, 21 of which were shot down, according to the Air Force.
“The enemy has again attacked the country’s energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook, citing “damage” to facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.
The latter two regions are close to the borders of the European Union and located hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.
According to kyiv, Moscow, which launched its offensive on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, is intensifying its air and ground attacks before the May 9 celebrations commemorating the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany during the Second World War and while Ukraine awaits the arrival of essential American weapons.
The Ukrainian private operator DTEK indicated that four of its thermal power plants had been “severely damaged” by the “massive” nighttime strikes.
The public operator Ukrenergo explained that it had disconnected its main power line in the west of the country as a preventive measure and asked all Ukrainian users to limit their electricity consumption.
“Parsimony”
“We ask all consumers to use electricity sparingly,” according to a statement from Ukrenergo. “The industry is being asked to maximize electricity imports and use alternative sources.”
In the western region of Lviv, Governor Maksym Kozytskyi called on Telegram residents to refrain from using equipment at the end of the day and early evening that consumes a lot of electricity, such as kettles, irons, microwave ovens or washing machines to preserve the electricity supply.
Two people were killed and eleven others injured in separate bombings.
One person died on Saturday in a village near the Russian border in the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian rescue services. Another was killed in a bombing in the Kherson region, according to Ukrainian police who also reported eight injured.
Two people were also injured in Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional governor Serguii Lysak said on Telegram. Emergency services reported another injured person in the Kharkiv region.
Ukraine, for its part, launched a massive drone attack overnight on the southern Russian region of Krasnodar.
According to a Ukrainian defense source, drones struck two oil refineries and a military air base in this region located east of the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Fire
“Ukrainian drones struck the atmospheric distillation columns of the Ilsky and Slavyansk refineries,” according to this source, describing them as “key technological installations.”
Russian officials in the Krasnodar region reported a fire at a refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban. The latter had to stop its activity, Russian state media reported, citing a representative of the operator.
Photos and videos circulating on social media show a large fire raging overnight at the site after a series of explosions.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced earlier Saturday that 68 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted overnight, including 66 over the Krasnodar region and two others on the Crimean peninsula.
kyiv has increased its attacks against Russia in recent weeks, particularly targeting energy sites.