In his daily address, Ukraine’s president thanked everyone who has been “eliminating the consequences” of what he described as “the Russian Nazis’ attack” Wednesday in regions across Ukraine.
“This is how the Kremlin marks the end of World War II in Europe,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, in a reference to Victory in Europe Day, also known as V-E Day, celebrating the end of the war on May 8, 1945.
Ukrainian officials said the massive Russian aerial attack that included 55 missiles and 21 drones damaged a power generation facility in the region of western Ukraine.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, said Russian missiles inflicted “serious damage” on three of the company’s six thermal power plants in Ukraine.
Ukrenergo CEO Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, interviewed by the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet, said electricity imports would not make up for power shortages. He said hydropower stations had also been hit, clarifying an earlier company statement omitting hydro stations from the list of affected facilities.
Power cuts for industrial users, he said, were “almost guaranteed,” but interruptions for domestic users would depend on how well they reduced consumption.
Maksym Kozytskyi, regional governor of Lviv, said on Telegram that Russian cruise missiles struck the generation facility in the Chervonohrad district, as well as a critical energy infrastructure site in the Stryi district.
There were no reports of casualties.
Andriy Rakovych, regional governor of the Korovohrad region northeast of Odesa in central Ukraine, reported one person injured and 13 homes destroyed in a Russian missile attack.
Officials in Vinnytsia, southeast of Lviv, also reported a Russian strike in attacks targeting critical infrastructure facilities.
Ukraine’s air force said the country’s air defenses shot down 39 of the 55 missiles and 20 of the 21 drones.
On the front lines in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers were able to stop Russian forces Wednesday in the town of Krasnohorivka.
“The enemy is cut off from the supply of ammunition. Our defenders have full fire control over both Krasnohorivka and the outskirts of the town,” Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson of the group of forces, told Army TV on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Kosovo’s foreign minister, who is also the deputy prime minister, said there is “only one solution” to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“It can only be Russia to lose the war and Ukraine to win this war,” Donika Gervalla-Schwarz said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Otherwise, Europe should prepare for other conflicts in our continent.”
She said Kosovo’s support for Ukraine is unconditional, despite Ukraine’s failure to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
“Ukraine hasn’t recognized the Republic of Kosovo as a state, but we really believe that we know exactly what Ukraine is going through,” she said.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but the young nation still suffers from aggressions from Serbia and its ally, Russia.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
