Russian attack leaves more than a million people in Ukraine without electricity

A massive Russian missile and drone attack damaged power plants and caused power outages for more than a million Ukrainians Friday morning, in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the war’s biggest attacks on energy infrastructure.

Police said the attack killed at least three people and injured 15 others office of the Ukrainian Attorney General.

The attacks came as the Kremlin escalated its rhetoric on the conflict, saying Russia was “in a state of war” in Ukraine – going beyond the euphemism “special military operation” – due to the West’s heavy involvement on the Ukrainian side.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, traffic lights were not working and water supplies were disrupted. A fire raged in the country’s largest hydroelectric dam, in the southeastern city of Zaporizhia. A few dozen kilometers to the southwest, an electricity line supplying a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant was temporarily knocked out.

“The enemy is now launching the largest attack on Ukraine’s energy sector in recent times,” said Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s Energy Minister. said on Facebook. “The aim is not only to cause damage, but also to try again, as last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system.”

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched 63 Iranian-made “Shahed” attack drones and 88 missiles during the attack, including hypersonic weapons that fly several times the speed of sound. The air force said it had shot down most of the drones but fewer than half of the missiles, a low interception rate compared with previous attacks that may reflect Ukraine’s dwindling air defense supplies.

“Russian missiles have no delays, unlike aid packages for Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said said on social mediaa clear reference to the $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine that the Republicans in the US Congress have lasted for months.

“Shahed drones have no indecisiveness, unlike some politicians,” Mr. Zelensky added.

Nevertheless, Russia complained on Friday about the United States’ assistance to Ukraine during the two years of war.

Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, the Kremlin has insisted it was carrying out a “special military operation.” The country’s communications watchdog ordered Russian news media not to describe the hostilities as an “invasion” or a “declaration of war.”

But Russian officials, including President Vladimir V. Putin, have occasionally used the word war in reference to the conflict, usually to point out that Russia has been fighting a Western coalition. And in an interview published Friday in an aggressively pro-Kremlin tabloid, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov tried to explain the change.

“Yes, it started as a special military operation, but as soon as this grouping was formed, when the collective West became a participant in this operation on the side of Ukraine, it became a war for us,” he said. “I am convinced of that,” he added. “And everyone should understand that for their internal mobilization.”

Friday’s attack was reminiscent of Russia’s air campaign against the Ukrainian energy network during the first winter of the war, which plunged Kiev into cold and darkness. Ukrainian authorities had warned that Russia was likely to repeat the campaign this winter, but instead, airstrikes in Moscow so far have mainly targeted industrial and military facilities.

Friday’s attack was Russia’s second large-scale airstrike in two days. a rocket attack on Kiev Thursday injuring at least 13 people and damaging several buildings.

The latest attack began shortly after midnight, when Russian forces launched dozens of attack drones against several Ukrainian regions, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Then, around 3 a.m., Russian fighter jets fired cruise missiles, followed by ballistic missiles and then hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, one of the most advanced weapons in Russia’s arsenal.

The complex barrage appeared intended to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses a strategy used in previous Russian air raids. The Ukrainian air force said it had failed to shoot down the Kinzhal missiles.

Rocket attacks on power stations caused power outages in seven Ukrainian regions. according to Ukrenergothe national electricity company, which provided the country with urgent energy support from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, said the attack was larger than those that focused on energy infrastructure during the first winter of the war. Oleksi Kulebathe deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office said hundreds of thousands of homes had temporarily lost power, affecting about 1.2 million residents.

Mr Kuleba said “blackout schemes” have been introduced in several regions to “preserve the energy system” during repairs.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the eastern city of Kharkiv was particularly affected, where about fifteen explosions were heard. A pumping station was hit, hampering the city’s water supply, and electric trams and buses did not function.

‘The city is almost completely without electricity’ Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the regional military administration said in the early morning. He said 700,000 residents of the region had no electricity as of 9am

In the southern city of Zaporizhia, the Dnipro hydroelectric power station suffered damage to its structure, including a large dam. Photos and videos posted online showed fire and smoke coming from the plant, and local authorities said the road over the dam was closed. Ihor SyrotaThe head of Ukrhydronenergo, the state-owned company that owns Ukraine’s hydroelectric power stations, said there was no risk of a breach but that an electricity generating unit was in critical condition.

Attacks on electricity installations were also reported in the western regions of Vinnytsia, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. Air raids on these areas have been rare during the war.

After the first winter of the war, Ukraine invested in protecting its energy infrastructure by building multi-layered fortifications including sandbags, concrete walls and cages filled with stones. But The country’s energy system continues to falter.

Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting from Kiev.