Moscow renews attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector and kyiv fires drones over southern Russia

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kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a barrage of missiles into Ukraine overnight, an offensive that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Additionally, Moscow said its air defenses intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday that Russia fired 34 missiles at Ukraine overnight, 21 of which were shot down by air defenses.

In a post on Telegram, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko explained that energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, in the south, and in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv, in the west, were attacked and that an engineer was injured.

Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal plants were damaged and there were “casualties” but did not provide further details.

Earlier this month, Russia destroyed one of the country’s largest power plants and damaged others in a massive missile and drone offensive in an uptick in its operations against Ukrainian energy facilities.

Ukraine asked its Western allies for more air defense systems to prevent this type of action. At a meeting of the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group on Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that his country will supply kyiv with additional ammunition and equipment for its air defense teams.

Further east, a psychiatric hospital was damaged and one person was injured after an overnight Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Images of the place showed a huge crater in the facility and patients sheltered in the hallways. According to the governor of the homonymous region, Oleh Syniehubov, a 53-year-old woman was injured.

For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that its air defense systems intercepted 66 drones over the Krasnodar province, in the south of the country. Two other drones were shot down in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow.

The governor of Krasnodar, Veniamin Kondratyev, noted that the target of kyiv’s forces was an oil refinery and infrastructure facilities, but he reported no casualties or major material damage. The provincial department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported a fire at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban during the attack.

Ukrainian authorities do not usually comment on attacks on Russian soil, but kyiv’s Energy Ministry said on Saturday that two Krasnodar oil refineries had been hit by drones.