Russia launched a fresh barrage of missiles at Ukraine early Saturday with the goal of targeting energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.
“This night, 34 Russian missiles targeted Ukraine. We managed to intercept a portion of them,” Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social platform X, while reiterating his call to receive more air defense systems from allies.
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said four of its thermal power plants had been damaged from the assault.
“The enemy against massively shelled the Ukrainian energy facilities,” DTEK said. “At this very moment, energy workers are trying to eliminate the consequences of the attack.”
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook that energy plants were struck in at least three regions of Ukraine. Galushchenko added that one worker was wounded in the Russian assault.
Facilities in the western Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions in western Ukraine were among those targeted, Galushchenko said. Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk are far away from eastern Ukraine, where the frontline fighting is underway.
Russia contends that Ukrainian energy infrastructure is a valid military target. The comes ahead of May 9, when Russia commemorates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The strikes also come as Ukraine waits for the arrival of US arms after (around €57 billion) aid package.
wd/dj (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
The post Ukraine updates: Russia ‘massively’ shells energy sites appeared first on Deutsche Welle.