Written by Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) – Russia attacked Ukraine's energy system and cities in its eastern region with cruise and ballistic missiles on Wednesday morning, Ukraine's energy minister and local officials said.
At least six people were injured in a missile attack on Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday morning, regional governor Oleh Sinyhopov said.
The Ukrainian air force said Kharkiv was attacked by ballistic missiles, and Sinyhopov said on the Telegram messaging app that there was “damage to non-residential civilian infrastructure.”
Separately, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram: “Since morning, the Russian army has been launching an intense attack on the Dnipro region. It is trying to destroy the region’s energy system.”
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galoshenko said on Facebook (NASDAQ:) that Russia is “intensively attacking the energy sector” and that the transmission system operator has imposed restrictions on electricity supplies to minimize the impact.
Russia has intensified its attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector since the spring of 2024, damaging nearly half of its generating capacity and causing hours-long blackouts across the country.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian military launched an air alert across the country in response to the launch of Russian cruise missiles.
DTEK, the country's largest private energy company, said its electricity generation facilities were attacked during the raid, causing “severe damage” to power equipment.
“This year, this is the 13th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the 10th massive attack on the company’s energy facilities,” DTEK said on Telegram.
Local authorities and the Air Force reported missile flights in the eastern, central, southern and western regions.
During a previous massive missile attack on November 17, Russia launched 120 missiles and 90 drones, killing at least seven people and causing severe damage to the power system.
DTEK imposed emergency power outages lasting up to eight hours across large parts of Ukraine at the time.
