KYIV
\nRussia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country\u2019s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least five people, officials said Friday.
\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 60 drones and about 90 rockets were used in the attack.
\nThe attack came a day after Russia launched 31 missiles in a single attack on the capital. It was the largest assault on Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure during the more than two-year-long war, said Volodymyr Kudrytsky, head of the national utility Ukrenergo.
\n\u201cThis attack was especially dangerous because the adversary combined different means of attack, kamikaze drones, ballistic and cruise missiles,\u201d he told The Associated Press. He said the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest, suffered the most damage.
\nLast winter, Russia targeted Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure, resulting in frequent blackouts across the country. Many had warned that Russia might repeat this strategy this winter. But instead, Russia has launched massive missile and drone attacks primarily directed at Ukraine\u2019s defense industry.
\nEvery large-scale air attack depletes Ukraine\u2019s capabilities to repel Russian missiles. Zelensky has been urging Ukraine\u2019s Western allies for weeks to provide additional air defense systems and ammunition amid delays in aid from the US
\n\u201cWith Russian missiles, there are no delays, like with aid packages to our state. Shaheds don\u2019t have indecisiveness, as do some politicians. It is important to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions,\u201d Zelensky said, referring to Iranian-made Shahed drones, which are widely used by Russia in the war.
\nThe attacks caused a fire at the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station, which supplies electricity to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe\u2019s largest nuclear power installation.
\nThe main external power line to the plant was cut off, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said early Friday, but Ukraine\u2019s nuclear energy operator said it was restored several hours later.
\nThe plant is occupied by Russian troops, and fighting around the plant has been a constant concern because of the potential for a nuclear accident.
\nThe dam at the hydroelectric station was not in danger of breaching, the country\u2019s hydroelectric authority said. A dam breach could not only disrupt supplies to the nuclear plant but could potentially cause severe flooding similar to what occurred last year when a major dam at Kakhovka further down the Dnieper collapsed.
\nThree people were killed and at least eight injured in the Russian attack, said Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov.
\nAttacks on energy facilities in the Kharkiv region caused blackouts in the country\u2019s second-largest city and disrupted critical air-raid siren systems. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said police would inform residents of possible air raids through loudspeakers and walkie-talkies and that alerts would be sent to cellular phones.
\nOther attacks were reported in areas of western Ukraine far from the front lines. Two people died in the Khmelnytskyi region, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry.
\nThe power outages left 1,060 miners trapped in the Dnipropetrovsk region and an evacuation was underway, according to private energy company DTEK.
\n\u201cThe world sees the targets of Russian terrorists as clearly as possible: power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential buildings, even a trolleybus. Russia is fighting against the ordinary life of people,\u201d Zelensky said Friday on the Telegram messaging app.
\nRussian officials said Friday that one person died and at least three were injured in Ukrainian shelling of areas near the border.
\nThe governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed when a shell hit nearby while she was walking her dogs and that two others were injured. The town of Tetkino in the Kursk region was shelled, injuring one person, said Gov. Roman Starovoit.
\nBoth regions have been subject to shelling and drone attacks in recent weeks and officials have said that attempts by Ukrainian fighters to cross into Russian territory have been repelled.
\nRussian officials refer to the conflict as a \u201cspecial military operation,\u201d eschewing the word \u201cwar.\u201d But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attracted attention on Friday by telling a Russian newspaper that \u201cwhen the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it already became a war.\u201d
\nHe later told reporters in a conference call that \u2033This is not connected with any kind of juridical change. It is de jure an SVO,\u201d the Russian acronym for special military operation.
\nBoth Peskov and President Vladimir Putin have occasionally used the word \u201cwar\u201d about the fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Russia attacked electrical power facilities in much of Ukraine, including the country\u2019s largest hydroelectric plant, causing widespread outages and killing at least five people, officials said Friday. President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 60 drones and about 90 rockets were used in the attack. The attack came a day after Russia launched 31 missiles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-395698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n