Russia launched a massive attack early Friday with almost 90 missiles and more than 60 Shahid drones directed against numerous regions of Ukraine that have caused three deaths and three missing, in addition to material damage in some of them, according to regional authorities in Ukraine. the affected areas. Russia, for its part, has also denounced Ukrainian attacks against its territory. According to regional authorities, one person died this Friday in the Russian oblast of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, in an attack that damaged four health centers.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, revealed in a message published on his Telegram account that the offensive had affected power plants and transmission lines, a hydroelectric plant, but also residential buildings. The Russian Defense Ministry emphasizes that the attacks apply only to Ukrainian military and energy facilities and infrastructure related to them.
“The world sees that the targets of Russian terrorists are clear: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric plant, ordinary residential buildings, even a trolleybus,” said Zelensky about this means of transport hit in the Dnepropetrovsk region.
In his message, Zelensky recalled that his country continues to expect more military aid from the West. “It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions,” he said after offering condolences to those killed in the attack and referring to Ukraine’s continued shortage of Western air defense systems.
The Ukrainian president once again asked the European Council this Wednesday for more air defense systems to better protect the entire Ukrainian territory from Russian attacks.
The head of the Ukrainian state explained that the authorities are working to restore electricity supply in the Ukrainian oblasts of Kharkiv and Sumi (northeast), Zaporizhzhia (southeast), Odessa (south), Poltava and Dnepropetrovsk (center) and Khmelnitsky, Vinitsia and Ivano Frankivsk (west), all of them affected by the attack.
According to the Government of Ukraine, the attack left three dead and three missing. Two of the victims lost their lives in the Khmelnitsky oblast, in western Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko on his social networks. Three other people are missing in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, he added.
The third of the deceased has lost his life in Zaporizhzhia, according to regional authorities.
Zelensky declared that “Russia is at war with the ordinary lives of the people.” “Patriot (anti-aircraft) systems must protect Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, air defense is needed to protect people, infrastructure, houses and dams,” he added. “Allies know exactly what is needed. And they can offer us. These solutions are necessary. Life must be protected from these inhumans from Moscow,” stressed Zelensky, who on Thursday insisted during the day in various public messages on the need to provide the rest of Ukraine with the air shield that the country’s capital, Kyiv, already has. .
“The enemy is carrying out the largest recent attack against the Ukrainian energy industry,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galuschenko wrote on his social networks. And he added that “the Russian objective” is “not just to harm, but to try to provoke again a large-scale collapse of the country’s energy system.”
According to him, the generation facilities, transmission and distribution systems of electrical energy in different areas were damaged. In addition, due to the bombing, one of the power lines feeding the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (the station is located in the city of Energodar, controlled by Russian troops) is offline. The supply is carried out through another line, the plant said on its Telegram channel.
Ukraine’s state hydropower company said the Russian attack had hit the country’s largest dam, the DniproHES in the Zaporizhia region. However, he specified that there was no risk of a breakup, according to Reuters.
“There is currently a fire at the station. Emergency services are working at the site, dealing with the consequences of the numerous airstrikes,” said Ukrhytdroenerho, who manages the Ukrainian dam network.
The Ukrainian defenses managed to destroy 55 of the 63 Shahed kamikaze drones and 37 of the 88 missiles of different types launched by Russia against numerous oblasts throughout the Ukrainian territory, according to the balance of the massive attack this morning offered by the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Russian authorities, for their part, denounced that the Ukrainian attack against the Belgorod border region had civilian targets. “There has been another attack. Unfortunately, one person has died. My deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” local governor Viacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
The politician added that the bombing had also left several injured, but did not specify their number. In addition, the attack damaged “at least four health centers,” the governor said.
Today’s massive Russian attack against the whole of Ukraine occurs a day after Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with more than thirty missiles that were all shot down by the air defenses of the Ukrainian Army.
Russia, for its part, has been reporting daily for several days the shooting down of drones and missiles in regions bordering Ukraine, particularly in Belgorod, which has also suffered several incursions by Russian anti-Kremlin volunteer militias fighting on the side. Ukrainian.
Authorities in this Russian border province announced plans on Tuesday to evacuate some 9,000 children to safer places. Last week alone, 16 inhabitants of this region died and 98 were injured as a result of Ukrainian attacks, its governor denounced.
