A Russian mass missile and drone attack overnight on Nov. 6 has once again hammered Ukraine's energy infrastructure, hitting substations, generation facilities, and disconnecting one of the power lines that supplies the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,
The Kyiv Independent reports.
According to Ukraine's Air Force, Russia launched 653 Shahed-type attack drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 17 ballistic missiles at targets across the country. Sixty strikes were recorded at 29 locations.
Explosions were reported in Poltava, Lutsk, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Bila Tserkva during the attacks.
In Chernihiv Oblast, Russian drones hit a residential area as well as critical infrastructure in both the region and Chernihiv city, the State Emergency Services reported.
The attack was "quite severe" for Ukraine’s power system, Vitaliy Zaichenko, head of Ukraine’s state grid operator Ukrenergo, told the Kyiv Independent.
Strikes hit substations and generation facilities, and disconnected one of the two power lines supplying the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
"Other nuclear power plants are now operating below their full capacity for safety reasons," he added.
Russian strikes also hit thermal power plants owned by DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, in the sixth mass attack since October. While the company didn't name the plants for security reasons, it disclosed that power generation equipment was "seriously damaged."
Kyiv Oblast Governor Mykola Kalashnyk reported that a 42-year-old man suffered shrapnel would in the city of Fastiv, located about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Kyiv's center.
Earlier reports said that the city's main train station was struck in the attack. Ukraine's railway authority, said that Russia had undertaken a "massive shelling of railway infrastructure" in Fastiv.
Kalashnyk also noted that two women, a 46-year-old and 40-year-old, suffered injuries in the Vyshhorodskyi district, just north of Kyiv. One of the injured women has been hospitalized with shrapnel wounds, the governor added.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service also reported that fires had broken out a warehouse in Novi Petrivtsi and at a home in Bucha in Kyiv Oblast.
