Massive Russian missile and drone attacks hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine overnight in the latest barrage targeting the country’s already damaged power infrastructure.
Kaniv hydropower plant was among the targets along with Dnister plant, which is located on the Dnister River, flowing through neighbouring Moldova, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“The terrorist state of Russia wishes to repeat the ecological disaster in the Kherson region following Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka HPP (blown up by Russian forces last year). This time, not only Ukraine but also Moldova are at risk,” he said on X.
Last week, Russia also hit Ukraine’s largest dam, the DniproHES in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, eight times during a massive overnight attack.
“We urge our partners to respond quickly and decisively to Russia’s intensified bombing campaign against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure,” Zelenskiy said in a call for more air defences.
A senior official at the Centrenergo generating company reported that the 10-unit Zmiivska thermal plant in northeastern Kharkiv region, an area subject to many Russian attacks, had been destroyed in a big wave of strikes on March 22.
“The consequences were destructive, the station is destroyed,” Andriy Hota, chairman of the company’s supervisory board told Interfax Ukraine news agency.
“There were many direct hits. Everything we repaired in preparation for the winter was destroyed.”
