Russia targets energy facilities in air attack on Ukraine, officials say

6 months ago 22

A Russian air attack on Ukraine damaged several facilities in a strike targeting energy infrastructure across the country, Ukraine’s military and energy officials said on Wednesday (8 May).

“Another massive attack on our energy industry!” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Power generation and transmission facilities in the Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Vinnytsia regions were targeted, he added.

Except the Zaporizhzhia region, all the other regions are far from the frontline that goes through Ukraine’s east and southeast.

The scale of the Russian attack on Ukraine was not immediately known. There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram that equipment at one of its facilities in central Ukraine was damaged, without providing further detail.

In the central Poltava region, an energy infrastructure facility was hit by a drone attack, sparking a fire, Poltava Regional Governor Filip Pronin wrote on Telegram.

According to preliminary information, there were no casualties.

Governors of the Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia regions said separately that critical civilian infrastructure facilities were damaged, without providing further detail.

All missiles targeting Kyiv were destroyed, Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. He added there was no major damage or injuries as a result of the attack.

Reuters’ witnesses in Kyiv reported hearing blasts, which sounded like air defence systems hitting air objects.

Air defence systems were also engaged in repelling the Russian attack over the Lviv region, which borders with NATO-member Poland, where several blasts took place, regional officials said.

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has launched a series of attacks on Ukrainian power facilities in recent months. Moscow denies targeting civilians but says the Ukrainian energy system is a legitimate military target.