After several weeks of relative calm away from the front lines, Russia last morning launched a new massive attack with missiles and suicide drones on Ukraine's electricity supply infrastructure early this Thursday morning. The projectiles hit ten areas of the country, including the capital, Kyiv, and two other large towns such as Kharkiv, to the northeast, Odesa, on the Black Sea, or Lviv, to the west, and in whose region five people died after one of the shells hit a residential area, Ukrainian authorities reported.
Of the 81 missiles the Russian military fired, six were Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and 34 were destroyed by the Ukrainian anti-missile system, as were four of the eight Iranian-made Shahed drones. The rest of the drones did not reach their targets either, according to the Ukrainian air force, which does not have the capacity to intercept the Kinzhal missiles. "It was a big attack and for the first time with so many different types of missiles..." said his spokeswoman, Yuriy Ihnat.
Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago, intensified airstrikes last October and has frequently knocked out power for millions of people since. During these months, Ukraine has improved its level of protection of its basic infrastructures thanks to the Western anti-aircraft systems it has received and after each massive bombardment it had managed to completely restore the electricity supply.
In the Lviv region, one of the furthest from the front, one of these shells hit a residential building, causing a fire that engulfed two other complexes. At least four people are known to have died as rescuers search the rubble for more possible victims, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said. In addition, a sixth person died and two others were injured in multiple shelling that affected the Dnepropetrovsk region, especially directed against its energy infrastructure and industrial facilities, its governor, Serhii Lysak, reported.
In the capital, 40% of its inhabitants were left without heating due to emergency cuts caused by the attacks. The mayor, Vitali Klichkó, reported explosions in the Holosiivskyi district and two people were injured in the Sviatoshynskyi district, also on the west side of the city, where several vehicles burned. In Kharkiv, the second most populous city in the country, they also suffered blackouts, a situation that was repeated in other Ukrainian cities. "The enemy has launched fifteen attacks on the city and the region," Kharkiv Governor Oleg Cynegubov explained on Telegram, adding that the missiles have targeted "essential infrastructures."
Meanwhile, further south, Ukraine's Zaporizhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, was today completely cut off from the power grid after Russian attacks, which could lead to an emergency with radioactive consequences for the entire world, the state-owned company said. Energoatom on his Telegram channel. The plant, the third largest in the world, was occupied by the Russian Army after the invasion and has suffered several disconnections from the Ukrainian network since then, due to the bombardments that take place in the area and of which Moscow and Kyiv are accused.
