KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a massive drone and missile attack on Saturday, wounding at least 19 people, local officials said.
The Ukrainian military reported shooting down 35 of 53 missiles launched at targets across the country on June 1, as well as 46 of 47 attack drones.
Injuries were reported by officials across the country, including in Ukraine’s western Lviv region and central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Twelve people, including eight children, were hospitalized after a strike near two houses where they were seeking shelter in the Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The attacks were part of a series of ongoing attacks by Russia on Ukraine’s power grid that have been going on since March.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK said two of its power plants were seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company’s plants in two and a half months.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a statement on social media that energy infrastructure in the Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk regions were also targeted.
Damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks has forced the war-ravaged country’s leaders to impose nationwide blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter attacks and enable repairs, shortages could worsen as needs increase in late summer and the bitterly cold winter.
In response to the attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Kiev needs additional air defense systems from its Western allies.
“Citizens, infrastructure and energy supplies. This is what Russia is constantly at war with,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
“Our partners know exactly what is needed for this. Additional Patriot and other modern air defense systems for Ukraine. Accelerating and expanding the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine. Providing our fighters with all necessary capabilities.”
Elsewhere, five civilians were killed in Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, Moscow-installed leader Denis Pushilin said. Another three people were injured, he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said it had shot down two Ukrainian drones over Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday morning. No casualties have been reported.
