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Photo caption,
After the attacks on the Dnieper hydroelectric station, a strong fire started
March 22, 2024
On the night of March 22, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure facilities, including the country’s largest DneproHPP. The station suspended operations. Emergency power outages occurred in seven regions of the country. Kiev called the strike the largest attack in recent times, if not in the entire war. The Russian military admitted that Ukrainian energy facilities were the target of a massive strike.
Kharkov and Kharkov region, Zaporozhye, Sumy, Poltava, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions – these regions of Ukraine were named by President Vladimir Zelensky, commenting on the massive attack, which Ukrainian power engineers had already called the largest attack since the beginning war.
According to Zelensky, the Russian military launched regarding 90 missiles of various types and more than 60 kamikaze drones. These figures were confirmed by the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They admitted that only 92 out of 151 air targets were shot down. Seven hypersonic Kinzhals, five Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise ships, five Kh-22 cruise ships, and ballistic missiles were not shot down.
The greatest damage, according to reports from Ukrainian authorities and energy workers, was suffered by the infrastructure of Kharkov. There was a complete loss of electricity in the city.
In Kharkov, the scale of damage is greater than in other regions, because the targets there were generation, high-voltage substations, and substations of distribution operators, explained the head of Ukrenergo, Vladimir Kudrytsky, on television.
The DneproGES came under attack, following which its work was suspended. This legendary Soviet hydroelectric power station is the largest in Ukraine. “There is no risk of a dam breakthrough yet,” Kudritsky said in the morning.
Ukrhydroenergo reported a “hit” on the hydraulic structures of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station and the dam, following which a strong fire started. “There is no threat of a breakthrough,” the company said. “The situation at the station dam is under control.”
Later, the director of Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Sirota, said that the consequences of the strikes were severe: “We are losing the station… DneproHPP consists of two stations – HPP-1 and HPP-2. GES-2 is under threat that it will work… We don’t know in what volume and with what power it can. It’s all because of the missile strikes.” According to him, there was a direct hit on GES-2, “GES-1 is also not working now.”
In June last year, during Russia’s war once morest Ukraine, the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was destroyed. This led to catastrophic consequences.
At the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, located in occupied territory, one of the power lines connecting the station to the unified energy system of Ukraine was switched off during a missile attack. “If the last communication line with the domestic energy grid is disconnected, the Zaporizhzhya NPP will find itself in another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions of safe operation,” warned the head of Energoatom, Pyotr Kotin.
Later, Energoatom reported that Ukrainian power engineers had restored the power line.
Play video, “Massive attack on energy facilities in Ukraine”, Duration 0.4300:43 Video caption,
Massive attack on Ukrainian energy facilities
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said that Russia had carried out “the largest attack on Ukrainian energy in recent times.” “The goal is not just to damage, but to try once more, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system,” he wrote on Facebook this morning.
Kudritsky believes that the night strikes were the largest attack of the entire war. According to him, combined means of destruction were used, and attacks were carried out simultaneously on different regions of Ukraine – both on thermal and hydroelectric power plants, and on main substations managed by Ukrenergo.
Emergency power outages occurred in seven regions – Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Sumy, Kirovograd, Zaporozhye, Odessa and Donetsk. The most difficult situation, according to Ukrenergo, is in the Kharkov, Odessa, Kirovograd and Dnepropetrovsk regions. In the Dnepropetrovsk region, almost 250 thousand residents were left without electricity, said the head of the regional military administration, Sergei Lysak.
Photo by t.me/mvs_ukraine
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Consequences of the attack in the city of Khmelnitsky
“Arrivals” for infrastructure and energy facilities were confirmed in Kharkov, Dnipro, Zaporozhye, Krivoy Rog, Vinnytsia, Khmelnitsky, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.
During the attack on critical infrastructure, residential buildings were also damaged, and there were civilian casualties, said the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Igor Klimenko. Two people are known to have died in the city of Khmelnitsky, and eight people were injured there.
The head of the military administration of the Zaporozhye region, Ivan Fedorov, reported three victims. In Zaporozhye, an eight-year-old girl and her 35-year-old father were killed as a result of a hit in the private sector. A 62-year-old trolleybus driver died at the DneproGES dam. There were no passengers in it. Another 25 people were injured, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported.
The Russian military admitted that Ukrainian energy facilities were the target of a massive strike. “Today a massive blow was dealt to energy facilities, the military-industrial complex, railway junctions, arsenals, locations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and foreign mercenaries,” the military department said in a statement.
Photo by t.me/zoda_gov_ua
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The head of the Zaporozhye regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov, published photos of destruction in the private sector of Zaporozhye
Zelensky, commenting on the large-scale attack on the country’s energy facilities, in his statement once more called for not delaying the issue of military assistance to Ukraine: “Patriot systems must protect Kharkov and Zaporozhye, air defense is needed to protect people, infrastructure, houses and dams. Partners know exactly what is needed. They can definitely support you. These solutions are needed. Life must be protected from these fanatics from Moscow.”
Russian authorities have not yet commented on the massive attack on Ukraine.
The day before, following a pause of 44 days, a massive cruise missile attack was launched on Kyiv. Authorities reported 13 casualties, damaged residential buildings and burned-out cars, and the media published photos of large craters. The Russian military claimed that they attacked the “decision-making centers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
