Russia pounds Ukrainian power facilities; Zelenskiy seeks air defences, 'political will'

[March 23, 2024]  By Max Hunder and Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) - Russia pounded Ukrainian power facilities on Friday in an attack described by Kyiv as the largest airstrike on its energy infrastructure in two years of war, and portrayed by Moscow as revenge for Ukrainian attacks during its presidential election.

The missile and drone attack hit a vast dam over the Dnipro river, killed at least five people and left more than a million others without power, forcing Kyiv to seek emergency electricity supplies from Poland, Romania and Slovakia, Kyiv officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said the strikes proved again that Russian attacks on infrastructure could be halted only with more air defense systems and that required political will from Ukraine's allies.

"Russian terror is only possible now because we don't have enough modern air defense systems which, to be honest, requires enough political will to provide them," Zelenskiy said.

"All our partners know what is needed and who can make truly life-saving decisions."

Military aid to Ukraine from Western allies has slowed in recent months, in particular a $60 billion package from Washington, stalled by political disputes in the U.S. Congress.

The strikes, which Kyiv said caused blackouts in seven regions, revived memories of the winter of 2022-23 when Moscow regularly bombed Ukraine's power grid.

Zelenskiy said repair work had made progress, with the worst outages in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, central Dnipropetrovsk region and Ivano-Frankivsk in the west.

The Russian defense ministry said the airstrike was carried out in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling and cross-border raids last week as Russians took part in a stage-managed election that handed President Vladimir Putin a fifth term.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said: "The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country's energy system."

Russia denies targeting civilians, although the war that began with its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions and destroyed towns and cities.

"STATE OF WAR"

Moscow says Ukrainian power facilities are legitimate targets and such attacks are aimed at weakening Kyiv's military.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian publication on Friday that Moscow saw itself as in a "state of war" because of the West's intervention on Kyiv's side.

Smoke and fire are seen around high-voltage lines at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, outside Kharkiv, Ukraine March 22, 2024. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

The comment marked a rhetorical break from the "special military operation" language that Moscow has used, an apparent move to prepare Russians for a longer and harder struggle.

European Union Council President Charles Michel said Russia's comments about war with Europe showed the importance of the EU's building its own defense industry.

Two people were killed in the western Khmelnytskyi region and three in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, including at least one at the dam, said the local administration and general prosecutor's office. More than 30 people were reported injured.

Ukraine's largest dam, the DniproHES in the city of Zaporizhzhia, was hit eight times, an official from the Ukrainian prosecutor's office said.

The state hydropower company said there was no risk of a breach. The company's director, Ihor Syrota, said both its power blocks and the dam itself had been damaged.

A state ecological inspectorate said that oil had leaked into the Dnipro river which the dam straddles.

"The wide impact of today’s attacks on critical civilian infrastructure is deepening the already dire humanitarian situation for millions of people in Ukraine," the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said around 20 substations and electricity stations had been hit in addition to the dam.

Russia fired 88 missiles and 63 Shahed drones, of which only 37 and 55, respectively, were shot down, the Ukrainian air force said of the attacks.

That represented a worse ratio than usual, possibly reflecting Moscow's widespread use of ballistic missiles that are harder to shoot down and also the proximity of the targeted regions to Russian-controlled areas.

Some 1.2 million people in at least four regions were left without power due to the attacks, presidential aide Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram.

(Reporting by Max Hunder; additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Dan Peleschuk and Olzhas Auyezov in Almaty; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alex Richardson, Timothy Heritage, Kevin Liffey, Ron Popeski and Leslie Adler)

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