Russia launched one of its biggest missile and drone barrages on Ukraine’senergy infrastructure overnight into Friday since the start of its full-scale invasion more than two years ago.
Ukrainian officials said at least 10 of the country’s regions were struck in an attack targeting power supplies in multiple towns and cities, including Kharkiv in the east, Odesa on the coast and Kryvyi Rih in the center.
The attacks have left well over 1 million households without electricity Friday morning, according to reports from multiple regional authorities. Only Kyiv and the northwest of the country were spared.
Among the major targets was Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power complex, situated on the Dnipro river in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Ihor Syrota, chief executive of Ukrhydroenergo, the site’s operator, said both electricity generating plants there had suffered massive damage and that it was unclear when or if the plants would be able to resume operations.
The dam itself was currently not in danger of being breached, however, after workers opened the dam’s gates to allow water to flow downriver, another senior Ukrainian energy executive, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, told national television.
Kudrytskyi said the missile and drone barrage was likely the largest-ever single attack on Ukraine’s energy system.
The energy company operating in Dnipropetrovsk region, DTEK, said more than 1,000 miners were working underground when coal mines in the region lost power due to the strike.
