A massive overnight Russian missile and drone attack damaged energy facilities throughout Ukraine, a day after the country announced rolling blackouts because of war-related power shortages.
Ukraine’s national power provider Ukrenergo said early Thursday an overnight attack on a thermal plant caused serious damage and wounded three workers.
“Equipment at facilities in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kyiv regions got damaged,” the Ukrenergo statement added.
On Wednesday, Ukrenergo announced hourly rolling blackouts would be implemented throughout the country. Russian drone and missile strikes have cut Ukraine’s power-generating capabilities to half of what they were last year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month.
In his daily address, Zelenskyy said government officials were looking for ways to improve the situation.
“We are preparing solutions that will ensure a more reliable passage of the heating season and give people more opportunities to get through this extremely difficult period, in terms of energy shortages and outages,” he said.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down five out of nine missiles and all 27 drones launched by Russia over 10 Ukrainian regions during Thursday’s attack.
The military said Russia mostly targeted eastern Ukraine, specifically the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Dnipropetrovsk’s governor said three men were injured in the attack, which also damaged seven homes.
In Russia, the governor of the southern Krasnodar region said an overnight Ukrainian drone attack targeted oil storage facilities.
Governor Venyamin Kondratyev said a woman was killed in an attack on the city of Slavyansk-na-Kubani.
Material from Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.
