‘There’s a lot of damage’: Russia strikes on Ukraine power grid largest in weeks

Russia fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine on Monday, killing at least four people and battering the country’s already weakened energy grid, triggering blackouts, officials said.

The barrage was the largest in weeks from Moscow and comes as Kyiv mounts a major offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, where it has been battling for nearly three weeks and on Sunday claimed to be advancing.

“There is a lot of damage in the energy sector. Restoration work is already underway,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Telegram.

State-owned electricity supplier Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts to stabilise the system following the barrage, while train schedules were disrupted.

Explosions from what appeared to be air defences could be heard in the capital Kyiv early on Monday, as residents rushed to take shelter in metro stations, AFP journalists reported.

“We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now,” said 34-year-old lawyer Yulia Voloshyna, who was taking shelter in the Kyiv metro.

ALSO READ: Ukraine hopes Indian PM Modi’s visit will create ‘lasting partnership’

“It was very scary, to be honest. You don’t know what to expect,” she added.

The Russian defence ministry said it had struck energy infrastructure used to support Ukraine’s defence industry.

Since invading in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, including punishing attacks on energy facilities.

Russia strike hits railway

The attacks on Monday killed four people and wounded more than 20 others across the country, officials said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian bombardment killed a 69-year-old man, while missile attacks in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed another, authorities said.

In the central region of Zhytomyr, Russian missile and drone attacks killed one person and wounded several others, authorities said.

ALSO READ: Ukraine to deploy robot dogs on front lines

And in the western city of Lutsk, Russian bombardments damaged an apartment building and an infrastructure facility, killing one person and injuring five others, mayor Igor Polishchuk said.

Russia also attacked railway infrastructure in the northern Sumy region, injuring a man and damaging buildings, national operator Ukrainian Railways said.

“Some railway stations, which were also cut off from power due to the outage in the city’s networks, have been switched to backup generators,” it said.

Zelensky said Russia hit Ukraine with more than 100 missiles and around 100 Iranian-designed attack drones, and called for European airforces to help down them.

“In our various regions of Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbours worked together with our F-16s and together with our air defence,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.

Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said the attack showed Kyiv needed permission to strike “deep into the territory of Russia with Western weapons.”

ALSO READ: UN says has asked Moscow for access to under-fire border areas

Authorities in the eastern Kharkiv region meanwhile said one resident had been killed on Monday morning by Russian rocket fire but it was not immediately clear whether that incident was part of the missile and drone barrage.

Strike on Kramatorsk

The aerial barrage came after a safety advisor working for the Reuters news agency, Ryan Evans, was killed in a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine late Saturday.

Six of its crew covering the war were staying at the hotel in Kramatorsk, the last major city under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region.

The Kremlin said there was “still no clarity” about the strike when asked about Zelensky’s assertion that the attack was carried out “deliberately”.

“I will say it again. The strikes are against military infrastructure targets or targets related to military infrastructure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Zelensky separately announced on Sunday his forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk, more than two weeks after Kyiv’s surprise incursion.

ALSO READ: Russia jails US-Russian ballerina for 12 years for ‘high treason’

– By: © Agence France-Presse