Sept 30 (Reuters) – Russian drone and missile attacks hit energy infrastructure in Kyiv and the nearby areas on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said, a prelude to another winter campaign aimed at wrecking the national energy system.
“Russia has escalated to massive strikes on energy infrastructure,” Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said on Telegram, adding that energy facilities had come under attack in other regions as well.
“Since summer, there’s barely been a day without an attack on our energy infrastructure. But a combined strike of this scale hasn’t happened since the end of last heating season.”
Ukraine is preparing for another winter assault on power and heating facilities after last year entire cities were plunged into darkness and cold for days or weeks.
Koretskyi instructed local authorities to check the readiness of backup power systems at critical facilities, and finish installing and connecting them as soon as possible.
FIVE KILLED IN ATTACKS
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that energy infrastructure in the capital and the surrounding region was the main target of the overnight attack that involved nearly 190 drones and ballistic missiles.
Five people, including a child, had been killed across Ukraine, Zelenskiy said.
Power company DTEK did not detail the damage to energy infrastructure in Kyiv but said workers had restored supply to 8,000 households.
Russia acknowledged the massive overnight assault, saying it had hit a data centre in the capital supporting Ukraine’s armed forces, various power plants in the Kyiv region, an industrial complex in Odesa region, and port infrastructure in Izmail.
The attacks followed weeks of near-constant barrages of jet drones, which Ukraine struggles to shoot down.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine – which is also short of interceptors to down ballistic missiles – had received new air defence support packages in recent days.
Thanking allies for the deliveries, he called for more protection ahead of the winter.
Ukraine’s air force said that five missiles and 155 drones had been intercepted in the overnight attack.
DEBRIS AT WESTERN EMBASSY
On Wednesday morning, Kyiv was shrouded in thick fog from the smoke of attacks. Emergency services asked residents to keep windows closed.
Citing preliminary information, Klitschko said debris had been found at a Western embassy in the centre of Kyiv. He did not specify which embassy.
Among neighbouring nations, a drone crossed into Moldova’s airspace and exploded near the eastern village of Hirbovet, while European Union and NATO members Romania and Poland both scrambled military jets, the countries said.
Flights at Polish airports Lublin and Rzeszow were temporarily suspended.
Ukraine has also increased attacks on Russia, hitting refineries and online retailers to undermine Moscow’s war effort.
One person was killed in drone attacks in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, while a Ukrainian drone attack on the oil-producing Samara region damaged private houses, regional governors said.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk, Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; additional reporting Alexander Tanas in Chisinau, writing by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Daniel Flynn)
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