Russia carries out largest air strike of Ukraine war on energy facilities

Russia on Friday staged its largest air strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure of the war, leaving more than a million others without electricity, Kyiv said.

Russia on Friday staged its largest air strike on Ukrainian energy infrastructure of the war, hitting a vast dam, killing at least five people and leaving more than a million others without electricity, Kyiv said.

Ukraine, which has long urged allies to supply more air defenses, said its energy system had received emergency power supplies from neighboring Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as seven of its regions faced blackouts.

The attack by Russia, which vowed last week to punish Kyiv for conducting attacks and strikes during its presidential election, brought back memories of the first winter of the invasion when Moscow regularly bombed the power grid.

“Russia is at war against people’s ordinary lives. My condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in this terror,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram messenger.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, though the war that began with its full-scale invasion in February 2022 has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, the uprooting of millions and the destruction of Ukrainian towns and cities.

Moscow says attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure are legitimate strikes aimed at weakening the enemy’s military.

Ukraine’s largest dam, the DniproHES in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, suffered strikes to its hydraulic structures and to the dam itself, state hydropower company Ukrhidroenergo said, adding there was no risk of a breach.

The company’s director Ihor Syrota said both its power blocks and the dam had been damaged. One of the blocks sustained two direct strikes, he said.