Russia launches a new barrage of missiles on Ukrainian energy facilities

Kyiv, Ukraine. Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, officials in kyiv said on Saturday, damaging energy facilities in the country’s southeast and west and injuring at least two workers.

Ukraine is fighting a new wave of rolling blackouts after relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure which started three months ago eliminated half of the country’s power generation capacity. In its eighth major attack on energy facilities overnight, Russia fired 16 missiles and 13 Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ukraine’s air defenses intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said.

State power grid operator Ukrenergo said the attacks damaged equipment at facilities in southeastern Zaporizhzhia and the western Lviv region.

According to regional governor Ivan Fedorov, two energy workers were injured in Zaporizhzhia when a fire broke out at an energy facility.

No major changes reported along the 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) front line, where a recent push By Kremlin forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides have targeted infrastructure targets, seeking to limit each other’s ability to fight in a war which is now in its third year.

Moscow’s night attack on Zaporizhzhia and Lviv follows Ukrainian military attacks in three oil refineries in southern Russia during Friday night.

Air defenses destroyed five drones over the Sea of ​​Azov and the western regions of Bryansk and Smolensk, the Russian Defense Ministry said. A man was killed in a bombing in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The governor of the partially occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said on Saturday that Russian strikes had killed five people and wounded seven the previous day.

In the Russian-controlled part of the region, Moscow-installed governor Denis Pushilin said three people were killed and four wounded in shelling by Ukrainian forces on Saturday morning.

A police officer was killed in the partially occupied Kherson region as a result of a Russian drone attack on a checkpoint, the Ukrainian National Police said.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at