Russia targets Ukraine's power grid in biggest air attack since August

Kyiv: Russia targeted Ukraine’s power facilities on Sunday in its biggest missile attack since August. Many cities, including the capital Kyiv, witnessed multiple blasts on the weekend, attempting to destabilize the country’s electricity generation and transmission, Agence France-Presse reported.

AFP quoted Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko’s Facebook post, "Another massive attack on the power system is underway. The enemy is attacking electricity generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine.”

According to AFP, Ukrainians have been bracing for a major attack on its power systems for weeks, and they were dreading a long blackout, increasing psychological pressure among them.

Air defences in the capital were engaged against drones in the night, and there was a series of blasts in the city centre, a result of missile attacks that continued through the next morning.

When the scale of the damage was not immediately clear, authorities cut power supply to numerous districts, including Kyiv. The power supply cut, also done in the area surrounding Kyiv as well as in the Dnipropetrovsk region, was a measure against sudden surge in case of damage.

Meanwhile, Polland, a bordering nation of Ukraine and a NATO member, said it had activated its airspace as a security precaution due to the Russian onslaught on Ukraine on Sunday. Polland noted that Russia had used cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones on Ukraine on the day.

Polland’s armed forces wrote on X, “..activated all available forces and resources at his disposal, the on-duty fighter pairs were scrambled, and the ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems reached the highest state of readiness," AFP quoted.