Ukraine said the Russian military launched a “massive” missile attack on the country's infrastructure on Wednesday, forcing authorities to implement emergency power outages to relieve pressure on the devastated power grid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his air defenses shot down at least 30 of the more than 40 missiles fired by Russia in a barrage targeting gas and energy facilities.
“It's yet another major Russian attack. We are in the middle of winter, but Russia's goal remains the same: energy infrastructure,” he said in a statement on social media from the capital, where temperatures are just above freezing.
The full details of the airstrike, which Zelenskiy said involved a ballistic missile, were not immediately clear. The Russian military could not be reached for comment.
The Russian military has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure in its winter campaign to deplete the country. Experts say the country's energy grid is on the verge of collapse due to attacks on power plants and substations.
On Wednesday, an air raid siren went off in the capital Kiev at around 5:45 a.m., putting much of the country on alert for missile launches. As people gathered in evacuation centers into the third hour and the Air Force warned of incoming cruise missiles, Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko announced emergency measures.
“Due to the large-scale attack, the electricity transmission system operator has taken precautionary restriction measures,” Galushchenko said in a statement on Facebook.
According to state-run power company Ukrenergo, emergency power outages were temporarily applied in six regions across the country, including Kharkov in the northeast and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Two critical infrastructure facilities were attacked in the Lviv region of western Ukraine, according to Regional Military Governor Maxim Kozytsky. A facility in the Ivano-Frankivsk region was also attacked, authorities said, without providing details of the potential damage.
The attack came a day after Moscow threatened to retaliate over Ukraine's recent use of Western-made long-range missiles to attack inside Russia.
Ukraine's energy grid has been hit hard by strikes, with authorities renting out floating power plants and salvaging decommissioned power plants from the region to ease pressure on the grid and prevent a crisis. We are forced to look for alternatives.
