The struggle for the destruction of energy facilities is intensifying between Russia and Ukraine

For weeks, Russia has attacked Ukraine’s energy facilities, making life increasingly difficult for residents without electricity. For its part, Kyiv, which wants to slow down the advance of Russian troops into its territory, is trying to cause supply disruptions by striking oil facilities directly on Russian territory. And on both sides, this strategy has intensified in recent days.

Moscow launched a new “massive” missile attack on Ukraine overnight Friday, hitting energy facilities in three regions, Ukrainian officials said in Kyiv on Saturday. “Russia has launched a new massive missile attack on Ukraine,” the military said in a daily morning update. According to the Air Force, Moscow fired 34 missiles, 21 of which were shot down. In Krivoy Rog, Dnepropetrovsk region (center-east), two people were injured, the head of the city’s military administration, Alexander Vilkul, reported on Telegram.

“The enemy has again attacked the country’s energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook, citing “damage” to facilities in Dnepropetrovsk (Central East), Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv (West). In a press release, Ukrainian private operator DTEK has just announced that four of its thermal power plants were “severely damaged” by “massive” strikes overnight.

As a result, in the Lviv region, Governor Maxim Kozitsky called on Telegram residents to refrain from using equipment that consumes a lot of electricity, such as kettles, irons, irons, microwave ovens or washing machines, at the end of the day and beginning of the evening. maintain power supply.

For its part, Ukraine claims to have struck two Russian oil refineries in the southern region of Krasnodar and “key technological facilities.”

Russian authorities have acknowledged a fire at an oil refinery in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban, and state media reported that the plant had partially stopped production. At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Saturday that 68 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight, including 66 over the Krasnodar region and two others on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.