Russian assault hits Ukrainian electrical power facilities, targeting major hydroelectric plant

• Russia attacked electrical power facilities in Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant.
• The attack used over 60 drones and about 90 rockets and occurred a day after Russia launched 31 missiles.
• The attacks primarily targeted Ukraine’s defense industry, diminishing Ukraine’s capabilities to repel Russian missiles.

On Friday, officials reported that Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country’s largest hydroelectric plant, resulting in widespread outages and the deaths of at least five people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky disclosed that the attack utilized more than 60 drones and about 90 rockets.

The assault occurred a day after Russia launched 31 missiles in a single attack on the capital. Volodymyr Kudrytsky, head of the national utility Ukrenergo, described it as the largest assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the more than two-year-long war.

“This attack was especially dangerous because the adversary combined different means of attack, kamikaze drones, ballistic and cruise missiles,” he told The Associated Press. He said the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, suffered the most damage.

During the last winter, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to frequent blackouts across the country. Many had issued warnings that Russia might repeat this strategy this winter. However, instead, Russia has launched massive missile and drone attacks primarily directed at Ukraine’s defense industry.

Every large-scale air attack diminishes Ukraine’s capabilities to repel Russian missiles. For weeks, Zelensky has been urging Ukraine’s Western allies to provide additional air defense systems and ammunition amid delays in aid from the US.

“With Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state. Shaheds don’t have indecisiveness, as do some politicians. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions,” Zelensky said, referring to Iranian-made Shahed drones, which are widely used by Russia in the war.

The attacks ignited a fire at the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station, which provides electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power installation.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported early Friday that the main external power line to the plant had been cut off, but Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator later stated that it was restored several hours later.

Russian troops have occupied the plant, and the ongoing fighting around the facility has been a persistent concern due to the potential for a nuclear accident.

The country’s hydroelectric authority assured that the dam at the hydroelectric station was not in danger of breaching. A breach could disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant and potentially cause severe flooding similar to last year’s incident when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper collapsed.

Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov reported that a Russian attack killed three people and injured at least eight.

Attacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region led to blackouts in the country’s second-largest city and disrupted critical air-raid siren systems.

Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov stated that police would inform residents of possible air raids through loudspeakers and walkie-talkies, and alerts would be sent to cellular phones.

Other attacks were reported in areas of western Ukraine far from the front lines. According to the Internal Affairs Ministry, two people died in the Khmelnytskyi region.

The power outages left 1,060 miners trapped in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and a private energy company, DTEK, reported that an evacuation was underway.

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