New Russian airstrikes cause emergency shutdowns across Ukraine
Russia has launched a massive new attack on Ukraine’s energy system, targeting the electricity grid, power plants and substations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
“Last night’s attack involved more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles of different types,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Damage was reported in the western Ukrainian regions of Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Rivne.
“Every day Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes,” the president said, calling on supporters of the current US-mediated negotiating process to respond to the latest attacks.
Moscow must be deprived of the possibility of putting pressure on Ukraine in cold weather, Zelensky stressed, adding that to achieve this, Ukraine needs missiles for its air defense systems.
In neighboring Poland, fighter jets took off in response to attacks that occurred overnight.
The necessary forces and resources have been mobilized, according to the operational command of the NATO member state’s army. The air defense and ground radar systems had been put on standby.
The airports of Rzeszów and Lublin, in the east of the country, had to temporarily suspend their air traffic.
Repeated blackouts of electricity, water and heating
Utility company Ukrenergo announced that emergency shutdowns were in place in most Ukrainian regions due to the damage.
This winter – the coldest that Ukraine has experienced in several years – Russia is increasingly targeting its neighbor’s energy system, already damaged after nearly four years of war.
The result is long, repeated outages of electricity, water and heating, with temperatures falling below minus 20 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country.
