KYIV: Russian missiles pounded power facilities in central and western Ukraine on Saturday, increasing pressure on the ailing energy system as the country faces a shortage of air defences despite a breakthrough in US military aid.

The airstrike, carried out with ballistic missiles and cruise missiles fired by Russian strategic bombers based in the Arctic Circle, was the fourth large-scale aerial assault targeting the power system since March 22.

“The enemy again massively shelled Ukrainian energy facilities,” said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, adding that four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage.

Rescuers battled to put out fires at several energy facilities in the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, which border Nato members Poland and Romania.

After strikes on energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, running water supplies were disrupted in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, officials said.

Ukrainian air defences brought down 21 of the 34 incoming missiles, the commander of the air force said in a statement.

None of the facilities hit was identified by name, a security measure intended to prevent Russia quickly assessing the impact of its strikes.

Russia denies targeting civilians, but says the Ukrainian energy system is a legitimate military target.

In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, which has been heavily bombed in recent weeks, a missile struck a hospital holding 60 patients, injuring a woman and damaging the building, nearby water pipes and power lines, the regional governor said.

Ukraine, which has tried to take the fight back to Russia in recent months using long-range drones, attacked the Ilsky and Slavyansk oil refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.

The drone strike conducted by the security service caused fires at the facilities, the source said. Russia’s Kushchevsk military airfield was also attacked in the southern region, the source added.

The Slavyansk oil refinery was forced to suspend some operations after being damaged in the attack, Russian state news agency TASS cited an executive overseeing the plant as saying.

Rolling blackouts

Ukraine has lost 80 per cent of its thermal power generation and 35 per cent of its hydroelectric capacity during Russian attacks, officials say.

Though the core of the energy system comes from nuclear power, that lost capacity serves a balancing function in the grid and its loss could be a big problem when consumption rises later this year, officials say.

Rolling blackouts have been introduced in several regions, but the full impact of the attacks has not been felt as consumption, which peaks in winter and the height of summer, is low because of mild weather.

There were no planned blackouts for now in Lviv region, but the governor urged residents to economise on electricity use, especially during the evening hours of peak consumption.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2024