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About a dozen power plants in Ukraine, including three thermal power plants, were severely damaged in Russia's biggest airstrikes in weeks, officials in Kiev said.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Ukrainian air force claimed to have shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of the 21 attack drones used in the Russian attack on Wednesday morning local time.
“Another massive attack on our power generation system,” the country's energy minister German Galushchenko wrote on his Telegram app.
Galushchenko said that Wednesday's attack damaged power generation and distribution systems in Russia's Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vinnytsia regions.
The country's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said about 350 rescuers are trying to put out and rescue several power systems, 30 houses, public transport, cars and a fire station in the Russian attack.
Lviv Governor Maksim Kozytsky said Russia had also attacked a natural gas storage facility on his territory in western Ukraine, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty reported.
Wednesday's attack was the latest major attack in a series of attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure that began in March this year.
Due to Wednesday's Russian attack, the Ukrainian authorities are already being forced to cut power in several regions.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attack. Russia denies targeting civilians, but considers Ukraine's electricity and energy systems a military target.
