Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in attacks on Ukraine, targeting substations that supply two nuclear power plants and killing seven people, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.
“Russia once again targeted substations that power the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power plants,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X.
“These were not accidental but well-planned strikes. Russia is deliberately endangering nuclear safety in Europe.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles.
Three people were killed and 12 were wounded in the city of Dnipro when a drone hit an apartment building.
Three were killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and one in Kharkiv region farther north, regional officials said.
Energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions were damaged, leaving thousands of people without power and water, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Officials in Poltava said power generators were used to provide water.
Russia’s defence ministry said earlier in the day that it had launched ‘a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons’ on weapon production and gas and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s strikes on Russia.
Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said emergency crews had stabilised the power grid, but warned consumers further power cuts were needed to allow work to proceed after the attacks.
“We are assessing the aftermath and co-ordinating what actions to take in order to find alternative power sources to ensure people get their power and heating back,” Hrynchuk said on national television.
News reports and unofficial social media accounts said blackouts persisted in at least two regions – Kharkiv in the northeast and Poltava in central Ukraine.
State-owned energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the largest on its facilities.
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