Russian Barrage Damages Key Ukrainian Thermal Power Plants
(Bloomberg) -- A massive Russian drone and missile barrage on Ukrainian energy facilities and other targets triggered widespread power outages and killed at least four people overnight.
“We have stopped...Zero generation. Zero,” Ukrainian state-owned power producer Centrenergo said on Facebook after what it called “most massive strike” on its facilities since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Centrenergo operates the Trypilska and Zmiivska thermal power plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions, respectively. Trypilska, the largest power generating plant in the Kyiv region, had been repaired after suffering severe damage in an April 2024 missile strike.
The attacks also damaged equipment at a thermal power plant owned by DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, the company said on Telegram without providing a location.
Russia fired more than 450 attack drones and 45 missiles in the latest strike, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media. He urged stronger sanctions against Russia by allies to take away its potential to wage war.
The missiles, drones and debris struck nearly 30 locations across Ukraine, the country’s air force said.
Kremlin forces continue frequent attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure ahead of the winter season, causing widespread outages to gas, heating and electricity generation.
The latest strikes were the ninth attack on civilian gas infrastructure since the start of October, said Sergii Koretskyi, chief executive officer of Ukraine’s Naftogaz, adding that one employee was wounded.
Russia targeted energy facilities in the Poltava region overnight, local governor Volodymyr Kohut said on Telegram. The city of Kremenchuk was left without power, water supply and partially without heating, he added. Three people were killed and 12 wounded after a strike on an apartment complex in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city.
A drone also damaged an energy facility in the southern part of Odesa region Friday evening, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
Separately, the UN nuclear watchdog said two operating power plants, Khmelnitskyy and Rivne, had to reduce electricity output after attacks on an electrical substation critical for nuclear safety.
Ukraine has intensified attacks on oil and gas facilities, many of them deep inside Russia, in response to Moscow’s recent strikes. A Ukrainian drone attack left some parts of the Volgograd region without power overnight, Governor Andrey Bocharov said on Telegram. Volgograd’s oil refinery was hit by drones earlier this week.
The Russian defense ministry reported that 79 drones were intercepted across ten regions overnight.
(Updates with information about Centrenergo’s plants from second paragraph.)
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