Russia targets Ukrainian energy sector in latest round of attacks

Russia has launched missiles toward Ukraine in attacks that appear to be targeting the country’s energy sector, officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 34 missiles and they were able to intercede and shoot down 21 of them, The Associated Press reported.

Herman Halushchenko, the minister of energy, said energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk in the south and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been hit. An engineer was injured.

DTEK, a private energy operator, said four of its six thermal power plants were seriously damaged. One employee was hospitalized, and the company is assessing the level of damage.

“Since the start of the full-scale invasion, #DTEK thermal power plants have been attacked over 170 times,” the company said on social media platform X. “The enemy had already attacked our thermal power plants in massive attacks on March 22, March 29, and April 11 as it seeks to cripple supplies of #energy to millions of ordinary Ukranian homes and businesses.”

Russia had already destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants earlier this month in a massive barrage of missile strikes.

The news comes just days after President Biden signed foreign aid legislation that will provide Ukraine with $61 billion in aid, as the war in Eastern Europe continues. The State Department also recently approved $138 million in sales to Ukraine for repairs to its HAWK missile defense systems to keep up with Russia’s attacks, over two years after the invasion began.

Russia also struck in and near Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, injuring one person and killing another, per the AP.

Ukraine was striking back at the same time, however.

The Defense Ministry said Russian air defense systems intercepted 66 drones over the southern Krasnodar region. There were no casualties or serious damage, according to the governor of the region.

The Associated Press contributed.