Russia bombarded Ukraine with missiles, causing heavy damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

(Dan Tri) – Ukraine suffered great losses after a Russian missile attack on energy infrastructure.

Firefighters extinguished the fire after the raid in Kiev on September 21 (Photo: Reuters).

On September 21, Russia attacked a series of energy facilities across Ukraine.

Ukraine said Russia fired 43 cruise missiles at targets in multiple airstrikes and Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 36 of them.

Witnesses said loud explosions shook the capital Kiev and surrounding areas.

Five regions in western, central and eastern Ukraine were cut off.

Ukrainian officials said at least 18 people were injured in the airstrikes, including a 9-year-old girl.

According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, rocket debris fell in the city center, damaging several buildings and a factory in the area was also damaged.

`Winter is coming. Tonight (Russia) continued its missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure,` lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

Power grid operator Ukrenergo said this was Russia’s first attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in six months.

The attack caused power outages in the Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of the Lviv region, said three Russian missiles hit the western city of Drohobych and an infrastructure facility and warehouse were also hit.

A facility was destroyed after a raid in Kiev on September 21 (Photo: Reuters).

The Russian Ministry of Defense said this attack targeted military industrial facilities, radio intelligence facilities and training centers for sabotage groups of Ukraine.

Ukraine is racing to repair infrastructure after attacks last winter damaged nearly half of the country’s energy system, forcing grid operators to regularly cut power.

This year, Ukraine has better air defense systems provided by the West, but still faces major challenges in protecting facilities from attacks across the country.

Mr. Andrii Yusov, an official of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency, said that Russian forces are conducting reconnaissance of Ukrainian energy facilities seemingly with the intention of conducting raids on these targets in the near future.

Mr. Yusov emphasized that Ukraine is carefully preparing for the above developments and Kiev believes that Russia will not give up its plan to attack Ukraine’s energy facility targets.

The British Ministry of Defense also believes that Russia may conduct missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the winter, similar to Moscow’s campaign last year.

Ukraine and the West believe that Russia applied the tactic of raiding the enemy’s energy infrastructure in the cold winter to weaken Kiev’s morale and force Ukraine to make concessions.