Russia strikes Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – MOD

The Russian military has conducted a series of strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has confirmed. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged that the country has experienced one of the most extensive barrages in recent months, causing widespread power outages.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said that “a massive high-precision attack” on Ukraine was carried out using long-range air- and sea-based weapons, as well as drones. The barrage targeted facilities supporting the country’s defense industrial complex, officials noted.

“All the designated targets have been hit,” the statement read.

Later in the day, the ministry provided more details about the strike and released a list of facilities that had been attacked. It said the strikes targeted electrical substations in the Kiev, Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Khmelnytsky, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Nikolaev, Kirovograd, and Odessa Regions, as well as gas compressor stations in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kharkov Regions.

In addition to energy infrastructure, Russia also hit airfields in Kiev and Dnepropetrovsk Regions that were storing Western-supplied air munitions, officials said, describing the strike as a success. “Power outages were detected, and the transportation of weapons and ammunition to the front line was disrupted.”

Zelensky confirmed that the attack had targeted critical infrastructure in most regions, calling it “one of the largest combined strikes,” adding that it involved more than a hundred missiles and a hundred drones. Energy Minister German Galushchenko described the situation as “difficult,” adding that emergency blackouts had been activated by the grid operator.

According to Prime Minister Denis Shmigal, the attack affected 15 Ukrainian regions. Local officials have said that the barrage hit two energy facilities in Kiev Region. Videos circulating on social media purport to show damage to the Kiev hydroelectric plant and the reservoir dam.

Russia has been carrying out attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the October 2022 bombing of the Crimean Bridge, which it claims was orchestrated by Kiev. Officials in Moscow maintain that the strikes are not aimed at civilians.

The latest barrage, however, comes as Ukraine continues to regularly conduct strikes on civilian infrastructure both in the border regions and deeper inside Russia. On Monday morning, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone damaged high-rise residential buildings in Saratov Region, some 800km from the Ukrainian border, injuring at least four people.

In early August, Ukraine also launched a large-scale cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region. While the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed that the advance has halted, officials in Moscow have accused Kiev of committing numerous atrocities on Russian soil.