Russia launched a large-scale missile attack targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday morning, Ukraine’s Air Force reported.
Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Wednesday, forcing the country to introduce preventive power cuts, the Ukrainian energy minister said.
“The enemy continues to terrorize Ukrainians,” Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook, urging residents to stay in shelters during the ongoing threat and follow official updates.
Moscow launched more than 40 missiles, and at least 30 were shot down, said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that about 70 strike drones were involved in the attack.
The state energy company Ukrenergo reported emergency power outages in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kirovohrad regions.
Constant strain on energy infrastructure
The attack comes a day after the Russian Defence Ministry accused Ukraine of firing multiple Western-made missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, claiming in an online statement that the attack “will not go unanswered.”
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported on Tuesday that Ukraine launched its “most massive” attack against Russian military and industrial facilities.
He added that Ukrainian forces struck as deep as 1,100 kilometres inside Russia, targeting oil storage, refinery, chemical and ammunition plants in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula and Tatarstan regions.
However, during the almost three-year war, Russian forces have persistently attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure to plunge the country into darkness and exhaustion during the winter months.
And Wednesday’s attack has further exacerbated the strain on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“It is the middle of the winter, and Russia’s goal remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure,” said Zelenskyy on Telegram, following the attack.
He urged Western partners to provide Ukraine with additional air defence weapons, emphasising that “promises have been made but not yet fully realised.”
Russian forces launched missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure in the western Lviv region early Wednesday, said the city’s mayor, Andrii Sadovyi.
“During the morning attack, enemy cruise missiles were recorded in the region,” he said.
Lviv regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said Russia hit and damaged two infrastructure facilities in the area of Drohobych and Stryi. No casualties were reported, he added.
