Russia has launched a barrage of missiles at Ukrainian power facilities, hitting locations in the centre and west of the country, damaging equipment and injuring at least one energy worker, officials say.
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The Russian strikes targeted the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine and the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Saturday on the Telegram messaging app.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said its four thermal power stations were hit.
"The enemy again massively shelled the Ukrainian energy facilities," DTEK said in a statement.
"The company's equipment was seriously damaged.
"At this very moment, energy workers are trying to eliminate the consequences of the attack."
Galushchenko said one energy worker had been injured.
DTEK also said there were casualties but provided no other details.
The commander of the Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched combined overnight strikes using a total of 34 cruise and ballistic missiles, with 21 of them shot down by Ukrainian air defence.
Since March 22, the Russian forces have ramped up their bombardments of the Ukrainian power sector, attacking thermal and hydropower stations and other energy infrastructure almost daily.
Ukraine has lost about 80 per cent of its thermal generation and about 35 per cent of its hydropower capacity, officials said.
Its energy system was already weakened by a Russian air campaign in the first winter of the war that Russia launched in February 2022.
Despite mild spring weather in recent weeks, Ukraine has faced an electricity deficit, with the government introducing scheduled electricity cut-offs in several regions and turning to emergency electricity imports.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 Russian missiles, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.
"Unfortunately, we could not avoid the consequences," Lysak said.
"Energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk and Kryvyi Rih regions were damaged - fires broke out."
Lysak said the water supply was disrupted in the city of Kryvyi Rih.
In the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, firefighters were also extinguishing massive fires at several energy facilities, regional officials said.
"It is difficult for the energy system to maintain the production and consumption balance," Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said, urging residents to save electricity.
"We have to help."
Australian Associated Press
