Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including a power station, was damaged by a major nighttime Russian attack which injured seven employees, the country’s authorities announced Thursday, whose electricity network is struggling to resist targeted Russian strikes.
This is the seventh “massive” attack on Ukrainian power plants in the last three months, according to operator DTEK, forcing Ukraine to impose frequent power cuts.
“The Russians attacked one of DTEK’s thermal power plants,” the company said in a statement Thursday, adding that the strikes injured three of its employees and caused “serious damage.”
The Energy Ministry said that “a number of energy infrastructures” had been attacked by the Russian army in four regions, including Kiev.
In total, “seven employees were injured”, one of whom is in serious condition, the ministry said, referring to “destroyed” equipment without giving further details.
AFP journalists in the capital heard air alert sirens sounding in the early hours of Thursday, as citizens took refuge in underground shelters.
The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday claimed responsibility for a “grouped strike” against Ukrainian energy installations, saying it had hit “all” of its targets and acted “in response” to kyiv’s attacks on its own infrastructure.
The Ukrainian air force, for its part, indicated that Russia had fired nine missiles and 27 explosive drones of Iranian design, adding that it had shot down almost all of them.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s electricity production and distribution network in recent months, destroying half of its energy capacity, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
DTEK Director General Maxim Timchenko warned that Ukraine risked being “faced with a serious crisis this winter” if its Western partners did not mobilize.
“I implore allies to help us defend our energy system and rebuild it in time,” he added in a statement posted on social media, explaining that a power plant already damaged in previous attacks had been touched again.
kyiv is urging the West to help rebuild its power grid, a project that requires significant investment, and to provide more air defenses to counter Russian strikes.
Russian refineries on fire
In Russia, several oil depots were targeted by Ukrainian drones during the night, as well as the town of Slavyansk-sur-Kuban, in the Krasnodar region, where a woman was killed, according to the regional governor, Veniamin Kondratiev.
A fire broke out at an oil refinery in the Republic of Adygea “following a drone attack,” Governor Murat Koumpilov said on Telegram.
A tank also caught fire early in the morning at a major oil refinery in Platonovka, Tambov region, “probably” because of a drone, Governor Maxim Egorov said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian special services (SBU) are behind the attacks on the two refineries, a source within kyiv’s security services told AFP on Thursday.
These infrastructures “processed and stored raw materials and finished products which were then used by the Russian army,” according to this source, who predicted more attacks of this type to come.
Russia continues to bomb regions close to the front line, in the south and east of Ukraine.
Two people were killed and three others injured in the last 24 hours in the southern region of Kherson, its governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Thursday.
In the Kharkiv region, where Russia recently launched a major surprise ground offensive, Governor Oleg Synegoubov said a woman was killed by a Russian strike.
Other bombings killed four people and injured four others, including a teenager, in the Donetsk region, where the fighting is particularly violent, said its governor Vadym Filachkine.
Earlier, he had already reported two deaths, including one in the town of Torestk, located very close to the front and subject to heavy Russian fire.
The Ukrainian army stressed on Thursday that Russian forces had “become more active” in the Toretsk sector, and were trying to seize positions in two neighboring villages.