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Major Russian air strikes destroy Kyiv power plant, damage other stations

Russian rockets and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and struck power facilities in numerous regions of Ukraine on Thursday, authorities stated, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defences.

The major attack more than 2 years considering that Russia's. major invasion entirely damaged the Trypilska. coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior. authorities at the business that runs the facility told .

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had actually been. required to introduce the strikes in response to Ukrainian attacks. in current weeks on energy targets inside Russia.

Video footage on social networks showed a fire raging at the large. Soviet-era facility and smoke belching from it. was able. to verify the place of the video as the Trypilska station.

We need air defence and other defence assistance, not. eye-closing and long conversations, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. said on Telegram, condemning the attacks as terror.

The Russian defence ministry said it struck fuel and energy. facilities in Ukraine in what it referred to as a huge. retaliatory strike utilizing drones and high-precision, long-range. weapons from air and sea.

The strikes were a reaction to Ukrainian drone attacks on. Russia's oil, gas and energy centers, it said.

Putin told his ally, Belarusian Presudent Alexander. Lukashenko that the attacks belonged of Russia's goal of. the demilitarisation of Ukraine - among the objectives of the. Kremlin's 2022 intrusion of its neighbour.

Regrettably, we observed a series of strikes on our. energy sites recently and were required to respond, Russian news. agencies estimated Putin as informing Lukashenko.

The strikes on energy are linked in part with fixing. among the jobs we set for ourselves, and that is. demilitarisation. Our company believe above all that in this way we will. impact Ukraine's military industrial complex and in an extremely. direct way.

Russia, he stated, had actually avoided carrying out such. attacks in winter out of humanitarian considerations.

Kyiv's appeals for urgent air defence products from the West. have grown significantly desperate given that Russia renewed its. long-range aerial attacks on the Ukrainian energy system last. month.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was blunt in duplicating calls. for more U.S.-made Patriot systems.

What is there to discuss? he told the Ukrainian state. news firm Ukrinform during a visit to Slovakia. There is only. a single question: Offer us Patriot systems! If we had Patriots,. we would not have lost all of this today.

The attacks, which hammered thermal and hydroelectric power. plants, stimulated fears about the durability of an energy system. hobbled by a Russian air project in the war's very first winter season.

Ukraine's flying force commander stated air defences took down 18. of the incoming rockets and 39 drones. The attack utilized 82. missiles and drones in overall, the armed force stated.

The destroyed power plant outside Kyiv, a major provider for. the capital and Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, is the 3rd and. last center owned by state-owned energy company Centrenergo.

Everything is destroyed, Andriy Gota, head of the. supervisory board of the company, said when inquired about the. circumstance at Centrenergo.

BIGGEST ENERGY SUPPLIER NEAR THE CAPITAL

The Trypilska plant was the most significant energy center near. Kyiv and was developed to have a capacity of 1,800 megawatts, more. than the pre-war needs of Ukraine's biggest city. The Ukrenergo grid operator said its substations and power. producing facilities had actually been harmed in attacks on the regions. of Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kyiv.

Ukraine's largest personal electrical power business DTEK, which. lost 80% of its producing capability in attacks on March 22 and. March 29, said Russia's attacks struck two of its power stations.

On Thursday afternoon, Russian forces attacked a thermal. power station in the Sumy area in northern Ukraine with guided. bombs. The scale of damage was not right away clear.

The strikes likewise assaulted two underground storage facilities. where Ukraine shops gas, including some owned by. foreign business, energy company Naftogaz stated. The facilities. continued to operate, it included. The scenario in Ukraine is dire; there is not a moment to. lose, said U.S. ambassador Bridget Verge, adding that 10. rockets struck infrastructure in the Kharkiv location alone.

The grid operator provided a declaration urging Ukrainians to. reduce their usage of electrical power in the peak evening hours.

The area of Kharkiv, which borders Russia and currently has. long, rolling blackouts in place, was forced to cut electrical energy. for 200,000 people, governmental assistant Oleksiy Kuleba stated.

Ukraine has actually cautioned it could lack air defence munitions. if Russia keeps up the strength of its strikes and that it is. already needing to make tough decisions about what to protect.

There has actually been a downturn in Western assistance and a major. U.S. help bundle has actually been blocked by Republicans in Congress.

(source: Reuters)