Russian strikes continue to target Ukrainian energy facilities

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said Saturday morning, damaging energy facilities in the country’s southeast and west and injuring at least two energy workers.

In its eighth major attack on Ukrainian power plants since Moscow intensified energy infrastructure attacks three months ago, Russia fired 16 missiles and 13 Shahed drones at energy facilities and critical infrastructure, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said.

State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the strikes damaged equipment at facilities in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and western Lviv region.

Two energy workers were injured in the Zaporizhzhia region when a fire broke out at an energy facility, according to regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov.

With no major changes reported along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where a recent push by the Kremlin’s forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides have taken aim at infrastructure targets, seeking to curb each other’s ability to fight in a war that is now in its third year.

Moscow’s overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia and Lviv follows Ukrainian military strikes on three oil refineries in southern Russia overnight into Friday.

Ukraine is struggling to cope with a new wave of rolling blackouts after relentless Russian attacks took out half the country’s power generation capacity.

In other developments, the governor of eastern Ukraine’s partly occupied Donetsk region said Saturday that Russian attacks had killed five people and wounded a further seven the previous day.

A policeman was killed in the partly occupied region of Kherson as a result of a Russian drone attack on a checkpoint, the Ukrainian National Police said.

In Russia, air defense systems overnight destroyed five drones over the Sea of ​​Azov and the country’s western Bryansk and Smolensk regions, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

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The Associated Press