By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Massive Russian missile and drone attacks hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine overnight, officials said on Friday, in the latest barrage targeting the country’s already damaged power infrastructure.
Kaniv hydropower plant was among the targets along with Dnister plant, which is located on the Dnister River, flowing through neighbouring Moldova, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“The terrorist state of Russia wishes to repeat the ecological disaster in the Kherson region following Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka HPP (blown up by Russian forces last year). This time, not only Ukraine but also Moldova are at risk,” he said on X.
Last week, Russia also hit Ukraine’s largest dam, the DniproHES in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, eight times during a massive overnight attack.
“We urge our partners to respond quickly and decisively to Russia’s intensified bombing campaign against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said in a call for more air defences.
A senior official at the Centrenergo generating company reported that the 10-unit Zmiivska thermal plant in northeastern Kharkiv region, an area subject to many Russian attacks, had been destroyed in a big wave of strikes on March 22.
“The consequences were destructive, the station is destroyed,” Andriy Hota, chairman of the company’s supervisory board told Interfax Ukraine news agency.
“There were many direct hits. Everything we repaired in preparation for the winter was destroyed.”
The wave of attacks on March 22 was described by Kyiv officials as the most intense since the February 2022 invasion.
Regional officials said Russian forces had also attackedinfrastructure overnight into Friday in the Kamianske district near the city of Dnipro. At least one person was wounded.
Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said power facilities in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Cherkasy had similarly come under attack.
“Electricity generation facilities were targeted by drones and missiles,” Gelushchenko said on Facebook.
DAMAGE IN SIX REGIONS
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said energy facilities in total of six regions had been damaged.
“Again, the attack was directed both against electricity generation facilities and against its distribution system,” he added.
Power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram it had to apply power cuts schedules up till the evening in three regions – Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kirovohrad.
The largest private power firm, DTEK, said its three thermal power plants had come under attack on Friday, and equipment was severely damaged.
“Attacks destroyed half of DTEK’s available generating capacity. Five of the six DTEK power stations that had been operating prior to this week have now sustained serious damage,” it said in a statement.
It added that Russian strikes on energy facilities were becoming more “accurate and concentrated”.
The Ukrainian military said its air force had destroyed 58 Russia-launched attack drones overnight from a total of 60, along with 26 of 39 missiles of various types.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Ukrainian television said explosions were heard in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and in the city of Dnipro as Russian cruise missiles were spotted.
Ukrainian power distributor Yasno said this week that DTEK lost about half its capacity after missile and drone strikes.
Ukrainian state-run Naftogaz oil and gas firm said its facilities had come under attack on Friday morning.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Gareth Jones, Angus MacSwan, Ron Popeski and David Gregorio)
