KYIV (National Times) Ukraine on Saturday said Russia had launched a \u201cmassive\u201d overnight attack on energy infrastructure in the west and south, adding that at least seven people died from Moscow strikes elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia launched 16 cruise missiles from land, sea and air as well as 13 attack drones, aiming at energy infrastructure in several regions, Ukraine\u2019s military said. Air defences downed all but four of them, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s defence ministry said that its troops \u201ccarried out a group strike with long-range high-precision weaponry from air and sea and also drones on Ukrainian energy facilities that power arms production\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said it also targeted warehouses containing munitions and \u201cair-launched weapons provided to the Ukrainian military by Western countries\u201d. \u201cAll the set targets were hit,\u201d the ministry said, calling its latest attacks retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on its own energy network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian energy ministry said this was Russia\u2019s \u201ceighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities\u201d in the past three months, targeting the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Lviv in the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEquipment at (operator) Ukrenergo facilities in the Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions was damaged,\u201d the ministry said. Ukrenergo said that two employees were wounded and hospitalised in Zaporizhzhia, where Europe\u2019s biggest nuclear plant is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than two years into the Russian invasion, targeted missile and drone attacks have crippled Ukraine\u2019s electricity generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Critical facility\u2019 hit Russia controls a part of the region and the nuclear plant. The Russian-appointed administration said Ukrainian attacks had damaged a substation linked to the city\u2019s nuclear power plant but did not affect nuclear safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of the western Lviv region, said Russia \u201claunched a missile attack on a critical energy infrastructure facility\u201d, sparking a fire that was later extinguished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian troops based in the west shot down seven out of 10 cruise missiles fired by Moscow, the Lviv regional governor said. Russian attacks have destroyed half of Ukraine\u2019s energy capacity, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zelensky said this week that all hospitals and schools in Ukraine must be equipped with solar panels \u201cas soon as possible\u201d. \u201cWe are doing everything to ensure that Russian attempts to blackmail us on heat and electricity fail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, said that strikes caused \u201cserious damage\u201d at one of its plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko warned that Ukraine \u201cfaces a serious crisis this winter\u201d if the country\u2019s Western allies do not provide military aid to defend the energy network. Zelensky has repeatedly urged Ukraine\u2019s allies to send more air-defence systems to protect the country\u2019s vital infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KYIV (National Times) Ukraine on Saturday said Russia had launched a \u201cmassive\u201d overnight attack on energy infrastructure in the west and south, adding that at least seven people died from Moscow strikes elsewhere. Russia launched 16 cruise missiles from land, sea and air as well as 13 attack drones, aiming at energy infrastructure in several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>Ukrenergo said outages across the country would start earlier than usual, running from 1100 GMT to 2100 GMT, due to damage from the attacks. In Zaporizhzhia, shelling over the last day also killed one civilian and destroyed residential buildings and infrastructure, according to the regional military administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n