Russia is now moving to a permanent shelling of Ukraine's energy supply. According to President Zelenskyy, 30 percent have already been destroyed. Again numerous cities are hit by missiles and drones. Ukraine reports some successful kills, but demands more air defense systems.
Russia has launched air alerts across the country with new missile and drone strikes on Ukraine. Authorities in numerous regions - including Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv - reported that air defenses were active. Still, rockets fell in many places. There were also reports of explosions from the capital Kyiv. An energy plant was hit there, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia has destroyed 30 percent of Ukraine's electricity plants within a week.
In Mykolaiv, a residential building was hit by rocket fire at night, and emergency services recovered the body of a man from the rubble, Governor Vitaly Kim said. According to Zelenskyy, at least one person was killed in the attack on Mykolayiv. Referring to Russia, he wrote on the short message service Telegram: "The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such acts." Russia is only confirming its destructive and murderous nature, for which it will certainly be held accountable.
Mayor Ihor Terekhov also reported rocket fire in the city of Kharkiv. "There were two series of explosions in the city within five minutes," he said. According to initial findings, an industrial company was hit. The subway ceased train service and resumed operations as a protective bunker. In the Dnepropetrovsk region, explosions were reported in Krivy Riy and in the regional capital Dnipro. An energy plant was hit in Dnipro, said Zelenskyj's adviser Tymoshenko. "A fire is raging and there is significant destruction," said the governor of the region of the same name, Valentyn Resnichenko.
Rockets hit energy infrastructure in Zhytomyr, sources said. "There is currently neither light nor water in the city," Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn wrote on Facebook. The hospitals have switched to emergency power supply. The Russian military had declared that it would target energy installations.
This coincides with British intelligence findings. The Defense Ministry's daily report says Russia has significantly increased the pace of its long-range missile attacks. The aim is the extensive damage to the Ukrainian energy supply network. Since Russia recently suffered setbacks on the battlefield, civilian targets are now being increasingly shelled.
Russian military bloggers close to the Kremlin also reported shelling in numerous regions - and published a large number of photos and videos with clouds of smoke over cities on social networks, which are intended to document the new attacks. The authenticity of these recordings, which were also distributed in Ukrainian channels, could not initially be verified.
The Ukrainian armed forces said that several attacks had been repelled. The government in Kyiv is demanding even more air defense systems from the West for air defense against Russian attacks with drones and missiles. Russia had recently intensified the shelling in the war against Ukraine that had been going on for almost eight months.
