Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the Christmas Day attack

Russia launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine on Wednesday, hitting a hot power plant and forcing Ukrainians to take shelter in substations on Christmas morning.

The strikes on oil and energy sources in Ukraine included 78 air-to-air, surface-to-air and sea-launched missiles and 106 Shahed and other types of drones, the Ukrainian military said. It claims to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, while another 52 drones are jammed.

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack him. What could be more brutal?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. “They are still fighting to cut off the electricity in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, in Russia, one woman died and three people were injured after debris from a crashed plane fell on a shopping mall in the city of Vladikavkaz.

The head of the Russian Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Sergey Menyaylo, said security footage showed that the explosion took place outside the Alania shopping center on Wednesday morning.

At least one person was killed when Russia attacked Ukraine’s Dnipro region, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Telegram, adding that heating of 155 residential buildings in Ivano-Frankivsk region was disrupted. He also said that 500,000 households or 2,677 buildings in the Kharkiv region were without heat.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said one Russian missile passed through the airspace of Moldova and Romania.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Russia is also “heavily attacking the energy infrastructure,” in a Facebook statement. The Ukrainian Air Force reported several missiles fired in the areas of Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava in the east of the country.

Halushchenko said the energy distributor has taken the necessary measures to limit consumption. “As soon as the security situation permits, the electricity workers will see the damage that has been done,” he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it had carried out a “major strike” on what it said were key energy facilities in Ukraine that support the work of the Kyiv military-industrial complex.

“The aim of the strike has been achieved. All facilities have been hit,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Russian forces have retaken control of a settlement in Vidrodzhennia in eastern Ukraine.

More than a dozen attacks on Ukraine’s power grid

Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said Russia struck one of its thermal power plants on Wednesday morning, making it the 13th attack on Ukraine’s power grid this year.

“Denying light and warmth to millions of peace-loving people as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered,” wrote Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, on ​​his X account.

Ukraine’s state energy operator, Ukrenergo, has implemented early power cuts across the country, due to a “massive missile attack,” resulting in blackouts in several districts of the capital, Kyiv.

At least seven strikes were targeted at Kharkiv, sparking fires across the city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At least three people were injured, local authorities said.

“Kharkiv is under heavy missile fire. A series of explosives have exploded in the city and there are still missiles flying towards the city. Stay in safe places,” said Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a report on Wednesday that it had shot down 59 Ukrainian planes overnight, including over Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Bryansk and Tambov regions, as well as the Sea of ​​Azov. It did not mention the North Ossetia-Alania incident.

Four people were also killed as a result of the Ukrainian shooting in the city of Lgov in the Kursk region, said the head of the region Alexander Khinshtein. Three people died after several houses and a hair salon were hit, he said. Another person later died in hospital.