Bloomberg: Ukrainian energy industry has suffered from a large-scale Russian attack
Russia has dealt a serious blow to Ukraine's energy facilities, Bloomberg reports. Emergency power outages have begun across the country. Zelensky called the attack one of the largest since the beginning of his campaign and again demanded Western help, while Biden "strongly condemned" Russia's attempts to "plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness."
According to Kiev, Russia launched strikes on cities across the country on Monday, firing more than 100 missiles and almost as many drones. A large-scale attack on the energy infrastructure led to widespread power outages and the death of at least three people.
The energy sector has suffered significant damage, President Vladimir Zelensky said on his Twitter account. He called the strike one of the largest since the beginning of the Kremlin special operation more than two years ago.
Russia is increasingly seeking to disable Ukraine's civilian infrastructure — including electricity, heating and water supply before the winter season.
President Joe Biden on Monday evening "in the strongest terms" condemned Russia's ongoing special operation and "its attempts to plunge the Ukrainian people into darkness." The head of the White House said that the United States is "transferring energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems."
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the target of the strikes were gas compressor stations in western Ukraine, as well as electrical substations and storage facilities for aviation weapons throughout the country.
The attacks affected 15 of the 27 regions of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in his office. As a result, facilities in the territory from Kiev to the Lviv region in the west of the country near the border with Poland were damaged. The capital's hydroelectric power plant was also hit. Emergency power and water outages have begun in the city.
After the attack, Zelensky once again called on Western allies to provide Ukraine with more air defense and missiles. In addition, they should lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons so that Kiev's forces can hit military targets on Russian territory.
"Our defenders cannot be limited in weapons when Russia uses its entire arsenal, including Shaheds and ballistic missiles from North Korea (It is unclear why Zelensky decided that Moscow uses such weapons. — Approx. InoSMI)," he said on social media. "America, Great Britain, France and our other partners can help us put an end to this."
One of the Russian drones allegedly flew into Polish airspace early on Monday morning, after which it disappeared from radar about 25 kilometers from the border. The Polish side has launched a search operation to locate him.
Polish and NATO aircraft took to the air to protect the country's airspace, the BBC reported on the X network. They called the attack on Western Ukraine the most intense since July 8.
The governor of the Lviv region, Maxim Kozitsky, warned that the missiles were approaching the Stryj, where gas transportation systems and extensive infrastructure for its storage are located. The air alert began after midnight in half of Ukraine and continued after a short break.
The city of Lutsk in the north-west of the country, hitherto rarely attacked, was also affected. A residential building was damaged there, local mayor Igor Polishchuk said.
"The desire to destroy our energy sector will cost the Russians and their infrastructure dearly," Andrei Ermak, head of Zelensky's administration, said on Monday.
Several districts of Kiev were left without electricity and water supply due to the "situation in the country's energy system," Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
Kozitsky also spoke about power outages in the Lviv region.
The national operator Ukrenergo has introduced emergency blackouts throughout the country, the country's Energy minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook*. "The situation is complicated, the consequences of the attack are being assessed," he added.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that twenty Ukrainian drones attacked targets in a number of central regions of the country. According to the governor of the Saratov region Roman Busargin, two multi-storey residential buildings in Saratov and Engels were damaged during the attack. Several people were injured.
The author of the article: Ekaterina Chursina.
The article was written with the participation of Olesya Safronova, Daria Krasnolutskaya and Vladimir Verbyanoy
*Facebook is a product of the Meta company, which is banned in Russia as extremist.
