Russian airborne attack hits Ukraine energy facilities
launched waves of cruise and ballistic missiles, rockets and drones against civilian and energy infrastructure targets across Ukraine overnight killing at least one person and injuring six, authorities said.
More than 50 missiles and 20 drones were launched against power generating and distribution networks facilities over large swathes of the country from Poltava and Zaporizhzhia in the east to Kyiv in the center and Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia in the far west, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Zelenskyy noted that the “massive” attack came on a day of “Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II,” a holiday when Ukraine normally marks the anniversary of unconditional surrender of Germany to the Allies on May 8, 1945.
A 65-year-old woman was killed by shelling in her home in a village 100 miles northeast of Kherson. A 40 year-old man was seriously injured and two women aged 47 and 65 suffered blast injuries as artillery fire on the settlement continued through the morning, the Kherson Military administration said.
Parts of Kherson city were plunged into darkness after critical infraRussia structure was struck and damaged along with the main railway track linking Kherson with the capital, Kyiv, Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a social media update.
A strike targeting energy equipment in the Oleksandriiskyi district of the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine injured an 8-year-old child and damaged 13 houses and more than two dozen garages, Gov. Andrii Raikovychin said in a post on social media.
A drone strike in the Poltava province set a critical infrastructure facility ablaze, according to regional governor Filip Pronin.
The overnight attacks “seriously” damaged three thermal power plants belonging to DTEK, the country’s largest private energy provider. However, the company did not state which of its plants were affected.
In the Kyiv region, 62year-old woman and a 34-year-old man, were hospitalized after being injured an attack on the city of Brovary where civilian infrastructure was set ablaze by falling debris from a missile downed by air defenses, Mayor Ihor Sapozhko wrote on social media.
Kyiv residents also reported explosions in the city at around 5:30 a.m. local time, the regional military administration reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the overnight strikes were in retaliation for a series of recent Ukrainian attacks against Russia’s oil processing and distribution infrastructure.