Russia's Missile Barrage on Ukraine: Energy Facilities Hit Hard

Russia launched a new missile and drone attack on Ukraine, severely damaging energy facilities and injuring energy workers. This led to record-high electricity imports and expanded power outages. Ukrainian air defenses shot down most of the missiles and drones. The attacks have intensified since March, causing a severe energy crisis.

Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones in an attack on Ukraine on Saturday, damaging energy facilities in the southeast and west, injuring at least two energy workers, and forcing record-high electricity imports, officials said. National grid operator Ukrenergo said equipment at its facilities in Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast and Lviv region in the west were damaged in the second large attack this week. Two energy workers in the Zaporizhzhia region were wounded and taken to the hospital, it said. Russia's attack also hit a gas infrastructure facility in the west of the country, the energy ministry said. "After eight massive attacks by the enemy on the power system since March, the situation in the energy sector remains difficult," the ministry said in a statement. Ukraine will import a record high 33,559 megawatt hours (MWh) of power following the attack, the ministry said. The government also would have to expand by several hours scheduled electricity cut-offs across the country. Ukraine's air defence shot down 12 of 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said. The air alerts in Ukrainian regions lasted for several hours in the middle of the night. In Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions, firefighters fought to extinguish fires, and repair squads were rushing to fix the damage to the power facilities, regional officials said. Lviv regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said 67 firefighters and 12 special vehicles were involved in putting out the fire in his region on Ukraine's Polish border. Also in the west of Ukraine, in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk the strikes damaged a building of an oil and gas university and 14 other commercial and residential buildings, the mayor said. "We can say for sure: the enemy will not stop. Ukraine needs air defence systems," Ivan Fedorov, Zaporizhzhia regional governor, said on the Telegram messaging app. Moscow has said its air strikes against the Ukrainian energy infrastructure were in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian territory. Since March, Russian forces have intensified their bombardments of the Ukrainian power system, knocking out about half of the country's available generating capacity and causing a severe energy crunch. Disruptions of electricity supplies to residents and businesses are becoming increasingly common across the country. In the capital Kyiv and other cities the hum of private generators is a constant sound despite lower levels of electricity consumption during summer months.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)