On Christmas morning, this Wednesday, December 25, more than 170 missiles and drones were sent by Russia towards Ukraine's energy system. “More than 50 missiles” and some drones were shot down, the Ukrainian president said.
An indignant reaction. Russia launched more than 170 missiles and drones on Ukraine's energy system this Wednesday, December 25, an “inhumane” attack which caused the death of one person and left, according to kyiv, hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity or heat on Christmas Day.
Russian President Vladimir “Putin consciously chose Christmas for his attack. What could be more inhumane?”, launched his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram.
“More than 50 missiles” and some drones were shot down but some strikes led to “power cuts in several regions,” he added. The strikes targeted six regions, leaving at least one dead and six injured and causing widespread heating outages in near-zero temperatures, according to Ukrainian authorities.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced this Wednesday “Putin's bloody and brutal war machine” which targets Ukraine “without any respite, even at Christmas”.
The attack killed an employee of a thermal power plant in the east-central city of Dnipro, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiï Kouleba said. The mayor of this large city reported heating problems in certain neighborhoods, specifying that a hospital with around a hundred patients was going to be evacuated.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city located in the northeast and very often targeted, the attack left six people injured and left half a million homes without electricity, heating and tap water, said the governor of Kharkiv. this region, Oleg Synegubov.
One of the cruise missiles, type Kh-59, fell in the courtyard of a private house in Kharkiv without exploding and causing no casualties, he added. Sappers are working on defusing it, according to the governor.
“Serious damage”
The Ukrainian air force said it had detected 78 Russian missiles and 106 drones, claiming to have shot down 59 and 54 respectively. Since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has regularly bombed the power grid of its neighbor, plunging civilians into darkness.
On the Russian side, a Ukrainian strike left four dead and several injured on Wednesday in Lgov, a town in the Kursk border region, where Ukraine has been leading an offensive since August, said interim governor Alexander Khinchteïn.
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DTEK Group, Ukraine's main private energy supplier, said its thermal power plants were targeted in this thirteenth massive attack on the energy system this year and reported “serious damage” to their equipment. The national electricity company, Ukrenergo, announced supply restrictions across the country.
On Wednesday, one of the Russian missiles crossed Moldovan and Romanian airspace, said Mr. Sybiga on the social network a Russian missile.
The Moldovan army said it was investigating this incident without confirming the passage of the missile through its airspace. Moldovan President Maia Sandu expressed solidarity with Ukraine.
A protest march
This Wednesday's attacks come on the day when Ukraine, for the second time in its modern history, celebrates Christmas Day on December 25, as in the Western world, and no longer on January 7, which corresponds to December 25. The ancient Julian calendar still followed by the Russian Orthodox Church for religious holidays.
This change was made official by kyiv during the summer of 2023, to differentiate itself from Russia. Between 2017 and 2022, Ukraine had already celebrated this holiday on December 25 and January 7.
To mark the holiday, nearly 200 Ukrainians, adults and children wearing traditional costumes, paraded through central kyiv on Wednesday singing Christmas carols. “With this march, we show that we will not let ourselves be discouraged” by Russia and will defend “our independence,” one of the participants, Bogdana Kouïevoda, 30, told AFP.
“It’s a people’s movement that neither the ruskofs nor Putin will stop,” added another participant, Volodymyr Gonsky, 58 years old.
Ukraine and Russia have intensified their strikes in recent months and want to do everything to strengthen their positions before Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, the American president-elect having said he wanted to stop “the carnage” as soon as he took office. function.
The Russian army, which has been advancing rapidly in recent months in eastern Ukraine, is trying to further accelerate its march forward. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense claimed the capture of the village of Vidrodjennia, very close to Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub for the Ukrainian army.
