Russia bombed Ukrainian electrical facilities at night

Russia attacked several energy facilities in three regions of Ukraine with missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Energy Minister said on Saturday (04/27/2024), and four thermal power plants were damaged, an electricity company added. “Energy infrastructures” were bombed “in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko detailed on Facebook.

“The Russian armed forces launched another massive missile attack against Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Army also reported in its usual morning news report. According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia fired 34 missiles, 21 of which were shot down. In a separate statement, the electricity operator DTEK stated that four of its plants reported “serious damage” in the “massive” attacks that night. DTEK explained that since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the company’s thermal power plants have been attacked more than 170 times, attacks that have caused major blackouts like the one this month.

Two people were injured in the center of the country, local official Oleksandr Vilkul reported on Telegram. Local sources reported another Russian attack on a psychiatric hospital in the eastern region of Kharkiv, in which a 53-year-old woman was injured. The mayor of the city of Kharkiv, Igor Terejov, noted on Telegram that “fortunately the rockets hit the ground and not the buildings of the medical center, otherwise it is difficult to imagine the number of dead and injured.”

For its part, Russia said Ukraine launched one of its largest nighttime drone attacks against the southern Krasnodar region and the annexed Crimea peninsula. The Russian Defense Ministry stated today that its anti-aircraft defenses “destroyed 66 Ukrainian drones over the territory of the Krasnodar region, and another two drones were destroyed over the Crimean peninsula.” According to Ukrainian sources, “key technological facilities” were attacked for the second time this week, specifically two refineries in the Krasnodar region and a military airfield.

The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamín Kondratiev, reported on Telegram that Ukrainian drones attempted to attack a refinery and other critical infrastructure in three districts, with little damage. The head of the Slavyansk district of the Krasnodar region, Roman Siniagóvski, pointed out that the drones attacked a refinery and caused damage to a rectifying column. The safety director of the company that operates one of the refineries, however, admitted that “work at the plant has been partially suspended” and said that ten drones hit the facility, causing a large fire.