Russia has launched a new barrage of missiles and drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, damaging energy facilities in the southeast and west of the country and injuring at least two energy workers, Kyiv says.
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National grid operator Ukrenergo said equipment at its facilities in Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast and Lviv region in the west were damaged in the second large attack this week.
Two energy workers in the Zaporizhzhia region were wounded and taken to the hospital, it said.
Russia's attack also hit a gas infrastructure facility in the west of the country, the energy ministry said.
"After eight massive attacks by the enemy on the power system since March, the situation in the energy sector remains difficult," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had used long-range missiles fired from aircraft and ships, and drones, to strike ammunition depots and energy facilities that it said supported military production.
Ukraine's navy said it was the first time since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that Russian forces had launched missiles from the Sea of Azov rather than the Black Sea.
"This is an important turning point, because they use it, considering it a safer water area than the Black Sea," Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk told local television.
Ukraine's air defence shot down 12 of 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said.
The air alerts in Ukrainian regions lasted for several hours in the middle of the night.
Ukraine's energy ministry said the strikes meant the country would import a record high 33,559 megawatt hours of power following the attack.
The government would also have to expand by several hours scheduled electricity cut-offs across the country.
At the bombed power facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Lviv, firefighters fought to extinguish fires and repair squads were rushing to fix the damage to the power facilities, regional officials said.
Lviv regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi said 67 firefighters and 12 special vehicles were involved in putting out the fire in his region on Ukraine's Polish border.
Also in the west of Ukraine, in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk the strikes damaged a building of an oil and gas university and 14 other commercial and residential buildings, the mayor said..
"We can say for sure: the enemy will not stop," Ivan Fedorov, Zaporizhzhia regional governor, said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Ukraine needs air defence systems."
Moscow has said its air strikes against the Ukrainian energy infrastructure were in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian territory.
Since March, Russian forces have intensified their bombardments of the Ukrainian power system, knocking out about half of the country's available generating capacity and causing a severe energy crunch.
Disruptions of electricity supplies to residents and businesses are becoming increasingly common across the country.
In the capital Kyiv and other cities, the hum of private generators can be heard constantly despite lower levels of electricity consumption during the summer.
Australian Associated Press
