KYIV, Ukraine, June 1, (AP): Russia pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack Saturday, injuring at least 19 people, local officials said.
The Ukrainian military reported that it had downed 35 out of the 53 missiles launched at targets across the country overnight on June 1, as well as 46 out of 47 attack drones.
Injuries were reported by officials across the country, including in Ukraine’s western Lviv region and the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
Twelve people, including eight children, were hospitalized after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering in the Kharkiv region, said Gov Oleh Syniehubov.
The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine’s power grid, which has been ongoing since March.
Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company’s plants in two and a half months.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Energy Minister, Herman Halushchenko, said in a statement on social media that energy infrastructure in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk regions had also been targeted.