Ukraine warned on Wednesday of possible power cuts at the end of the day after a new “massive” Russian attack on its energy network which left at least one dead and around ten injured.
Since the start of the year, Ukrainian electrical installations have suffered several waves of bombardment from Russian drones and missiles, causing serious damage and power cuts.
“The enemy is not giving up its plans to deprive Ukrainians of light. New massive attack on our energy industry! », Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.
These attacks targeted electricity production and transmission sites in the regions of Poltava, Kirovograd, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia, he said.
The city of Kherson, in the south, was also “partially deprived of electricity” due to “enemy strikes”, according to the local governor.
National electricity company Ukrenergo warns that power cuts are “possible across Ukraine […] from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. She asked her customers to “use electricity sparingly”.
Ukrenergo said this was the fifth “massive” attack on the energy network since March 22.
In the middle of the day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy claimed to have restored power to more than 50,000 users temporarily deprived of electricity, because of these bombings.
For its part, the Russian army assured that it had carried out strikes against the Ukrainian energy network and military industry in response to attacks by kyiv against its own installations.
“Terror”
The Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down 39 of 55 missiles launched by Russia, as well as 20 of 21 attack drones.
According to the DTEK company, the largest private investor in the energy sector in Ukraine, three thermal power plants were “seriously damaged”.
It said its facilities had been bombed about 180 times since the war began in February 2022, including five times in the past six weeks.
These nighttime attacks killed a 65-year-old woman in a village in the southern region of Kherson and injured three other people, according to the local prosecutor’s office.
One person was injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, two in Brovary, near Kiev, at least two others in the capital, and an 8-year-old child in the Kirovograd region, according to local authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced “Russian terror”.
This Wednesday, May 8, “the day of commemoration of the victory against Nazism during the Second World War, Putin the Nazi launched a massive attack against Ukraine,” he protested.
In a separate message, he then said he had spoken with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen about ways to strengthen Ukraine’s energy system and air defenses.
For his part, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal announced the creation of a government working group responsible for “coordinating all efforts to overcome the consequences of Russian energy terrorism”.
His mission, he said, will be to prepare businesses and households in Ukraine for possible power outages during the coming fall and winter.
Two villages captured
According to the military administration of the city of kyiv, Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers fired several cruise missiles at the capital, which was placed on alert for three hours. All these missiles were shot down, she said.
Railway tracks were also damaged in the Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian railways, essential for trade, transport of civilians and military supplies to Ukraine, where civilian air traffic has been suspended since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
On the front, Moscow also claimed on Wednesday the capture of the town of Novokalynové, near Avdiïvka, conquered in mid-February, in the Donetsk region (east).
In recent weeks, the Russian army has been advancing in this area, trying to take advantage of the Ukrainian troops’ lack of men and weapons.
Moscow also claimed on Wednesday to have seized the village of Kyslivka, in the Kharkiv region, almost entirely reconquered by kyiv during a victorious counter-offensive in the fall of 2022, but which remains subject to Russian bombing.