Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia launched a major ballistic and cruise missile attack on regions around the world on Wednesday. Ukrainetargeting energy production and forcing authorities to shut down the power grid in some areas despite a freezing winter, officials said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it launched a strike against “critically important gas and energy infrastructure facilities that ensure the functioning of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex.” He did not give target locations or other details.
The barrage came a day after Russia’s Defense Ministry vowed to respond to what it said was an attack on Russian soil using several Western-supplied missiles. kyiv has not confirmed the attack, although it said Tuesday it had hit an oil refinery and fuel storage depot, a chemical plant producing munitions and two anti-aircraft missile systems, in ‘a missile and drone attack that reached nearly 700 miles into Russia. .
Long-range attacks are a feature of the nearly three-year-old war, in which armies are engaged on the front line that snakes about 600 miles from northeast to southern Ukraine. in a war of attrition. Russia has made progress on the battlefield over the past year, although its progress has been slow and costly.
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Russia attacked Ukraine with 43 missiles and 74 drones overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said. A total of 30 missiles and 47 drones were shot down, and 27 drones failed to hit their targets, according to the statement.
The Russian missiles targeted targets from the Lviv region in western Ukraine, near Poland, to Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, which borders Russia. State energy company Ukrenergo reported emergency power outages in six regions. It often shuts down production during attacks as a precaution.
“The enemy continues to terrorize Ukrainians,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on Facebook.
Electricity supply resumed in some areas around the middle of the day, but Ukrenergo urged its customers to avoid using power-hungry electrical appliances.
Russia has repeatedly attempted to cripple Ukraine’s power grid, depriving the country of heat, electricity and running water, in an attempt to break the Ukrainian spirit. The attacks were also aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s defense manufacturing industry.
Last September, the United Nations refugee agency reported that Ukraine had lost more than 60% of its energy production capacity.
Ukrainian authorities are trying to rebuild their electricity production after the attack, although the dams have eroded production. Western partners are helping Ukraine rebuild.
“We are in the middle of winter and Russia’s goal remains unchanged: our energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
He urged Western partners to accelerate the delivery of promised air defense weapons to Ukraine, stressing that “the promises have been made but not yet fully realized.”
Poland commits to advancing Ukraine’s EU membership bid
Furthermore, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged on Wednesday to take advantage of his country’s presidency of the European Union to advance Ukraine’s application for membership.
“We will break the deadlock we find ourselves in on this issue,” Tusk told reporters in Warsaw, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We will speed up the membership process.”
Zelensky was in Poland on Wednesday after the two countries reached an agreement on the exhumation of Polish victims of massacres carried out by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II, a source of long-standing tensions between them.
