2 weeks Ago By Evening Standard
has launched a “massive” nationwide strike targeting ’s energy infrastructure. Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian cities of Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, Kharkiv, Rivne and Lutsk on Thursday morning, Ukrainian news outlets Zerkalo Tyzhnya and Suspilne said. Further explosions could also be heard in the Ukrainian capital of , although the city’s mayor said air defences were working on Thursday.
Ukraine's air force previously announced a nationwide alert that warned that Russia had launched seven Tu-95 strategic bombers, the Kyiv Independent reports. "Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy's massive strike," Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook. Ukraine's national grid operator Ukrenergo introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack - Ukraine's top private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted the capital as well as Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
During the Thursday missile attack on the western Rivne region, governor Oleksandr Koval said 280,000 consumers experienced power cuts. He also reported interruptions in water supply without elaborating on damage. The mayor of the western town of Lutsk reported power cuts after several strikes, adding that the services were working to connect water and heating infrastructure to alternative power sources.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, said on Thursday that Russia was deliberately stockpiling weapons, including arms from , to launch mass attacks on cities and infrastructure. "They stockpiled missiles for strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, for warfare against civilians during the cold, during the winter," Yermak said. President said on Sunday that Russia had launched more than 800 KAB-guided aerial bombs, nearly 460 attack drones, and more than 20 missiles over the past week.
"The enemy continues to attack Kharkiv with missiles," city mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper urged residents to stay in shelter in a separate message. Meanwhile, Russia's air defence systems destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over four regions, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
Fourteen of the drones were destroyed over the Krasnodar region, six over the Bryansk region, three over Moscow-annexed Crimea and two over the Rostov region, it said. Krasnodar's regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, wrote on Telegram that two districts in the southern Russian region were subjected to a "massive drone attack" overnight. One civilian was injured, he said.
A local Telegram channel published footage showing an object crashing into a building in the town of Slavyansk-na-Kubani, followed by a loud boom and fireball. It could not be immediately verified..
