Massive Russian bombing of energy facilities in Ukraine

Moscow. Russia appears to have set itself the goal of plunging Ukraine into darkness when it launched more than 100 missiles, including hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles, and a similar number of drones against energy facilities, including the Kiev hydroelectric plant, in 15 of the 24 administrative regions of the neighbouring country, over a period of ten hours on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the massive combined attack “one of the biggest since the war began” and stressed “their cruelty in wanting to damage the most critical civilian infrastructure in most of our regions, from Kharkiv to kyiv and Odessa.”

Ukraine’s air defense system said it shot down 102 of the 117 missiles and 99 of the 109 drones launched by Russia.

The Kiev hydroelectric dam was hit by a missile, but authorities have said it is “impossible” to destroy the dam, which contains the waters of the Dnipro River reservoir, with such missiles, and if it were to collapse it would cause a catastrophe in the Ukrainian capital.

Zelensky said emergency services are “working hard to repair damaged facilities in order to restore electricity and drinking water supplies as soon as possible” in areas of Ukraine where blackouts have occurred.

Although it is premature to know the number of victims, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal has preliminarily told the Ukrainian press that there are five known cases of death and thirty wounded, as well as numerous buildings and vehicles damaged by direct impacts or falling fragments.

Meanwhile, early this morning, Ukraine attacked the Russian regions of Saratov, Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, Tula, Orlov, Ryazan and Volgograd with drones, according to reports of 20 downed unmanned aerial vehicles provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said that two drones hit two newly built skyscrapers in the cities of Saratov (37 floors) and Engels (25 floors), located opposite each other on the left and right banks of the Volga River.

Taking into account that other drones reached the military airfield of Engels-2four kilometers from the river, which serves as a base for bombers Tu-160 y Tu-95MCThe hit on residential buildings could have been due to two reasons: either the Ukrainians, when planning the flight path, relied on previous maps that did not include the skyscrapers, one inhabited since 2015 and the other from 2021, or Russian electronic combat resources diverted these drones, Russian expert Yan Matveyev believes.

Russian response to Kursk invasion?

It is not clear whether Monday’s attack on 15 Ukrainian regions was the “inevitable” response that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “at the time” to the Ukrainian invasion of the Russian region of Kursk on August 6, where 20 days later fighting continues without major changes in recent days: the Ukrainians are trying to advance a little further, the Russians are trying to prevent it.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this morning (Monday) that “there will certainly be a response,” but he did so hours after, according to estimates by kyiv’s anti-aircraft defense, eleven Tu-95MC and six Tu-22M3 had finished launching their missiles and guided bombs, as had four warships and an undetermined number of land-based missile systems.

Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma’s defence committee, said the attack was “part of our response to the Kursk provocation, and there will be more.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying: “This morning (Monday), the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike using long-range precision weapons based on air and sea, operational tactical aviation and attack drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities supporting the operation of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.”

He said the attack targeted “electrical substations in the regions of kyiv, Vinnitsa, Zhitomir, Khmelnitsky, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Nikolaev, Kirovograd and Odesa.”

He added: “Our armed forces also attacked gas compression stations in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kharkiv regions, which ensure the functioning of Ukraine’s gas transportation system.”

There are several attacks of a similar magnitude. To mention a few, on December 29, 2023, Russia launched 122 missiles of different types and 36 drones and just a few days later, on January 2, 2024, it repeated the attack with the same number of unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles.

And before the presidential elections in Russia, Putin promised to respond to the Ukrainian bombing of the Belgorod region, and did so on March 22 this year with 90 missiles and 60 drones.