Ukraine’s Power Grid Under Attack: At Least Four Killed, Emergency Blackouts Introduced

In the latest escalation of the conflict, Russian missile and drone strikes battered Ukraine’s power grid on Monday, killing at least four people and forcing authorities to introduce emergency blackouts. The attack, which began during the night and was the biggest in weeks, targeted 15 regions across the country, with officials reporting damage in multiple regions.

The attacks come as Ukraine presses a major cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been battling for nearly three weeks and claimed on Sunday to be advancing. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal stated that “Russian terrorists have once again targeted energy infrastructure. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions.”

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that it had struck energy infrastructure used to support Ukraine’s defence industry. Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has launched repeated large-scale drone and missile attacks on the country, including punishing attacks on energy facilities.

The assault caused widespread disruptions, with explosions heard in the capital Kyiv, prompting residents to rush to take shelter in metro stations. “We are always worried. We have been under stress for almost three years now,” said 34-year-old lawyer Yulia Voloshyna, who was taking shelter in the Kyiv metro.

The attacks wounded more than a dozen people across the country, with the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region reporting a 69-year-old man killed in the attack. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, one civilian was killed, and in the western city of Lutsk, Russian bombardment damaged an apartment building and an infrastructure facility, killing one person and injuring five others.

Russian forces also attacked railway infrastructure in the northern Sumy region, injuring a man and damaging buildings. “The enemy is once again terrorising the whole of Ukraine with missiles. The energy sector is in the crosshairs,” said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

The attack came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, called for permission to strike “deep into the territory of Russia with Western weapons.” Zelensky separately announced on Sunday that his forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk, more than two weeks after Kyiv’s surprise incursion.

This latest attack highlights the ongoing vulnerability of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and the ongoing brutality of the conflict.