Russia launched more than 70 missiles and more than 100 explosive drones at Ukraine on Wednesday, targeting its energy system. The attack caused the death of one person and left, according to kyiv, hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity or heating 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. This “terror” is “Putin’s response to those who spoke of an illusory “Christmas ceasefire”” between kyiv and Moscow, asserted the head of Ukrainian diplomacy Andriï Sybiga.
Supply restrictions
“More than 50 missiles” and some drones were shot down but certain strikes led to “power cuts in several regions,” said the Ukrainian president. The strikes targeted six Ukrainian regions, leaving at least one dead, an employee of a thermal power plant, and six injured.
They also caused extensive heating cuts in temperatures close to zero. In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city located in the northeast and very often targeted, half a million homes remained without electricity, heating and tap water, according to the governor of this region, Oleg Synegoubov.
The cuts even briefly affected the Ivano-Frankivsk region, in the west of the country and hundreds of kilometers from the front line, according to the regional administration. DTEK Group, Ukraine's main private energy supplier, said its thermal power plants were targeted by Wednesday's attack, reporting “serious damage” to their equipment. The national electricity company, Ukrenergo, announced supply restrictions.
Ukraine strikes town near Kursk
Since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has regularly bombed its neighbor's electricity grid. But 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 of the old Julian calendar still followed by the Russian Orthodox Church for religious holidays.
On the Russian side, a Ukrainian strike left four dead and several injured this Wednesday in Lgov, a town in the Kursk border region, where Ukraine has been leading an offensive since August, said interim governor Alexander Khinchteïn. Moscow and kyiv have intensified their strikes in recent months and want to do everything to strengthen their positions before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
The Russian army, which has been advancing rapidly in recent months in eastern Ukraine, is trying to further accelerate its march forward. This Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense claimed the capture of the village of Vidrodjennia, very close to Pokrovsk, an important town for the logistics of the Ukrainian army.
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