Seven people killed in Russian attacks targeting energy facilities in Ukraine

SadaNews - Seven people were killed in Russian attacks targeting energy facilities in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials announced on Sunday.

Authorities stated that Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles overnight, targeting substations providing electricity to the Khmelnytsky and Rivne nuclear power plants, raising concerns about a new threat to nuclear safety in Europe.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha confirmed that the strikes were "carefully planned" and not accidental, accusing Moscow of deliberately endangering Europe's nuclear security.

In the same context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia launched over 450 drones and 45 missiles in the recent attacks.

He clarified that the shelling resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to 12 others in the city of Dnipro after a residential building was targeted, while three others were killed in the Zaporizhia region and one in Kharkiv in the north of the country.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko reported that energy facilities in the Kyiv, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions sustained severe damage.

The state-owned company Centrenergo announced that these attacks are "the largest since the outbreak of the war in February 2022", confirming a complete halt of its operations at its facilities in Kyiv and Kharkiv, stating that "electricity generation is now equal to zero".

Zelensky called for tightening sanctions on Moscow, stating in a post on "Telegram": "For every strike targeting energy infrastructure, sanctions should be imposed on all Russian energy sources without exception".

For his part, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister called for an urgent meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urging China and India to pressure Russia to stop the attacks that could lead to a "nuclear disaster".

In response, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had carried out a "large-scale attack" using precision air, land, and sea weapons, targeting weapons and energy production facilities in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks inside Russian territory, noting its advancing troops in the Pokrovsk and Kupiansk axes in eastern Ukraine.

These attacks come at a time when Kyiv is seeking to reduce Moscow's ability to finance the war by targeting oil facilities within Russia, while the need for energy increases as winter approaches.