A Russian missile and drone barrage damaged a Ukrainian power plant and other energy facilities overnight, officials said on Thursday, the latest in a series of strikes that have pushed the country’s grid to the brink.
The targeted aerial barrages over recent months have crippled Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity and forced officials to impose rolling blackouts and import supplies from neighboring EU states.
“The enemy attacked a number of energy infrastructure facilities,” the energy ministry said, adding that the barrage of Russian projectiles targeted energy-linked sites in four regions, including the capital, without elaborating.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said the aerial attacks had caused “serious damage” at one of its thermal power plants, and that three of its employees had been wounded in the attack.
“This is already the seventh mass attack on the company’s thermal power plant in the last three months,” the company said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that those attacks have halved generator capacity in the war-battered country compared to one year ago and urged allies to send more air defense systems to protect vital infrastructure.