A number of energy facilities in western Ukraine had suffered damage during Russia's major overnight strike targeting critical infrastructure, state oil and gas monopoly's CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said on March 24.
"We have damage to Naftogaz Group facilities in the west," Chernyshov said in a post on Facebook, without disclosing the precise locations of the attack.
In the early hours of March 24, Russia launched its latest major missile and drone attack across Ukraine, targeting critical infrastructure and leaving thousands without heating.
In western Lviv Oblast, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi reported "two hits" on a critical infrastructure site that Russia targeted once again in its second wave of attacks later in the morning.
While no casualties have been reported thus far, Ukraine's air defense was unable to shoot down all the cruise missiles and Shahed drones launched across the country. Russia fired 29 cruise missiles and 28 Shahed drones, of which 18 and 25 were shot down, respectively, in a large-scale attack targeting eight regions in the west, center, north, and south of Ukraine, the Air Force said.
According to the Energy Ministry, debris from the shot-down drone damaged power lines in Kyiv Oblast, leaving 1,400 consumers in two settlements without electricity.
In Lviv Oblast, a substation that adjusts voltage levels was disconnected from the power facility, and "the consequences are being investigated," the ministry said.
In central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the Russian overnight strike has left about 600 people without power, according to the statement.
Many in other regions that were struck by Russia's previous coordinated countrywide attack against Ukraine or suffer from daily shelling due to proximity to the front line are also still cut off from electricity, the ministry added.
Russia has recently once again intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, with the March 22 strike damaging the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, Ukraine's largest hydroelectric station.
Throughout the winter of 2022-2023, Russia launched a series of mass missile and drone strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure facilities, killing dozens of civilians and causing rolling blackouts nationwide. That winter, Russia severely hit almost half of the country's energy system.
The winter of 2023-2024 spelled yet another wave of massive strikes, but the resulting energy disruptions have not reached the scale of those in late 2022 and early 2023. Russia's attacks this year have for the most part failed to disrupt en masse the country's power grid.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
