Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure during Christmas Day attack

Russia launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday, hitting a thermal power plant and sending Ukrainians taking cover in metro stations on Christmas morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement that more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones were used to strike energy sources in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said via the Telegram messaging application that at least one person was killed in the Dnipro region, adding that heating had broken down in 155 residential buildings in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. He also said that 500,000 beneficiaries or 2,677 buildings in the Kharkiv region were without heat.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sepha said that a Russian missile passed through the airspace of Moldova and Romania.

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas to launch an attack. What could be more inhumane?” Zelensky said. “They continue to fight for blackouts in Ukraine.”

He said that Ukraine was able to shoot down at least 50 missiles and a large number of drones.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that it had carried out a “large-scale strike” on what it said were vital energy facilities in Ukraine that support the work of the military-industrial complex in Kiev.

She added in the same statement that Russian forces also took control of the Vidrodzhnya settlement in eastern Ukraine.

In a statement on Facebook, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haloshenko said Russia was “attacking energy infrastructure on a large scale” again. The Ukrainian Air Force alerted that several missiles had been fired at the Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava regions in the east of the country.

He added, “The (electricity) distribution system operator is taking the necessary measures to reduce consumption to reduce negative impacts on the energy system.” “As soon as the security situation allows, energy workers will determine the damage caused.”

More than a dozen attacks on the electricity grid in Ukraine

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said Russia struck one of its thermal power plants on Wednesday morning, making it the 13th attack on the Ukrainian power grid this year.

“Depriving millions of peace-loving people of light and warmth as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered,” DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko wrote on his X account.

Ukrainian state energy company, Ukrainergo, has implemented a preventive power outage across the country, due to a “massive missile attack”, knocking out power in several areas of the capital, Kiev.

Regional President Oleh Sinyhopov wrote on Telegram that at least seven strikes targeted Kharkiv, sparking fires across the city. Local authorities said that at least three people were injured.

Kharkiv Mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said, “Kharkiv is under heavy missile attack. A series of explosions rang out in the city, and there are still ballistic missiles flying towards the city. Stay in safe places.”