Energy facilities damaged as Russia and Ukraine exchange overnight attacks

Energy infrastructure in both Russia and Ukraine was damaged as the two countries exchanged missile and drone strikes overnight, officials in both countries said on Saturday.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said that one power plant employee had been injured as Russia attacked energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and the western Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, while private energy provider DTEK reported that four thermal power plants across the country had been “seriously damaged” following Russian missile strikes.

Dnipropetrovsk region Governor Serhiy Lysak said that two people had been hospitalised as a result of Russian attacks in the area, with energy facilities damaged in the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih as air defences downed 13 missiles over the region.

The mayor of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Ihor Terekhov, said that a psychiatric hospital in the city housing over 1,000 people had been damaged by a Russian missile landing nearby. Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Syniehubov later reported that one person had been injured as a result of the strike.

The Ukrainian Air Force said in its daily report on Saturday morning that it had downed 21 of 34 Russian missiles launched at Ukraine overnight.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said that it had downed 66 Ukrainian drones over Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, as well as two over occupied Crimea.

Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that emergency services had been called to extinguish fires caused by debris from at least 10 downed drones as Ukraine “attempted to attack oil refineries and infrastructure objects”, while the head of the region’s Slavyansk district Roman Sinyagovsky said that a fire had been extinguished at an oil refinery in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban after nine drones were launched at it.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry published images appearing to show the drone strikes and resulting fires, saying that it had targeted two oil refineries in Slavyansk-on-Kuban and the town of Ilsky, as well as a military airfield and a bitumen plant in the Krasnodar region.