Ukrainian officials said the attack damaged infrastructure in five regions across the country.
Russian forces have bombarded Ukraine with missiles and drones, damaging energy infrastructure in five regions, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national power grid operator, said the attack hit facilities in eastern Donetsk, southeastern Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as the central and western Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, respectively.
“This morning Russia launched another attack on Ukrainian energy facilities. This is already the sixth large-scale, combined missile and drone attack on civil energy infrastructure since March,” Ukrenergo said.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine’s air defense commander said Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 Russian drones.
Since March, Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Ukraine’s power infrastructure, cutting off much of its thermal and hydroelectric power generation, causing blackouts and pushing power imports to record highs.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy power company, said two thermal power plants were damaged and equipment was “severely damaged.”
Local officials reported that firefighters were extinguishing fires at several sites following the strike. No casualties were immediately reported.
US eases restrictions on weapons use
The missile and drone attacks came a day after the United States announced it was easing a ban on Ukraine using weapons within Russian territory to allow Ukraine to defend its northeastern Kharkiv region from attacks.
The move comes as France and other European countries also said they would allow Ukraine to use the weapons against military targets inside Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been urging allies to allow long-range weapons to be used to strike targets on Russian soil amid a surge in attacks this month, particularly in Kharkiv.
Officials in the Kharkiv region said at least three people were killed and 16 injured when a missile struck Ukraine’s second-largest apartment complex in a Russian strike around midnight (21:00 GMT) on Friday morning.
Last week, officials said a Russian attack on a hardware supermarket left 19 people dead.
