Russia enters a state of “war” in Ukraine and launches more than 90 missiles and 60 drones against electricity infrastructure

Large areas of Ukraine They experienced blackouts this Friday after the Russian missiles They will attack energy infrastructure. According to Ukrainian authorities, at least five people were killed and more than 20 injured.

Russia attacked Ukrainian territory on Thursday night with nearly 90 missiles and more 60 Iranian Shahed drones against power plants and transmission lines, against a hydroelectric power station and against residential buildings, as revealed by the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenskil

This is the largest intervention recently launched by Russia against the Ukrainian energy sector, according to the Energy Minister of the attacked country, German Galushchenko.

In Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, there was no electricity, regional head Oleg Synehubov said.

Fifteen explosions were recorded in Kharkov, while more than 53,000 homes in Odessa remained without electricity.

The Energy Minister accused Russia of wanting to provoke “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system”.

He added it A power line feeding the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was cut.

“This situation It is extremely dangerous and risks triggering an emergency situation, since in the event of an interruption of this last communication line with the national electricity grid, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will be on the verge of a new ‘black-out’“warned Energoatom, the Ukrainian operator.

This was confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency The “emergency” line connected to the headquarters continues to operate.

Moscow, in a “state of war”

After two years of invasion under the rubric of “special operation” and just hours after the massive missile and drone attack, Russia acknowledged on Friday that is in a “state of war” in Ukraine.

“We are in a state of war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with pro-government media Argumenty i Fakty, after insisting for the past two years that it was a “special operation” and rejecting the use of the term. “war”.

“Yes, It all started as a special military operation, but as soon as the whole gang was formed, when the collective West participated in all this on the side of Ukraine, for us, it became a war“the spokesperson said.

Moscow accuses Western powers of direct involvement in the conflict by supplying weapons to Kiev.

The Russian bombings at dawn on Friday They reached nine regionsfrom Kharkiv to Zaporizhia near the front line to Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine, hundreds of kilometers from the fighting zone.

“There were more than 60 Shaheds and almost 90 missiles of various types during the night,” the Ukrainian president reported.

The attacks were directed at “power plants, high-voltage lines, a hydroelectric dam, homes and even a trolleybus”said the president.

It was the “largest attack on the Ukrainian energy industry in recent times,” in the words of the Energy Minister.

“Dozens of electrical systems were damaged. Urgent cuts in seven regions. The electricity system receives emergency aid from three countries,” explained the Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo. The “most difficult” situation concerns the regions of Kharkiv in the east, Odessa in the south, Kirovograd in the center and Dnipropetrosvk in the central-east.

Zelensky again criticized the delay in the delivery of military aid from its Western allies and insists on the urgency of receiving more anti-aircraft defense means.

In the United States a 60 billion dollar package is locked for months due to clashes between Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

“Russian missiles are not delayed, unlike aid packages to our country. The Shaheds are not indecisive, unlike some politicians,” Zelensky joked.

Russia had already launched a massive bombing attack on Kiev in the early hours of Thursday, the first in the Ukrainian capital and its surroundings since early February. Ukraine shot down thirty missiles, although 17 were injured by shell remnants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed retaliation for increased Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks on Russian soil, more than two years after he ordered the invasion of the former Soviet republic.

The Kremlin has always assured the Russian population that the conflict would not affect them or have repercussions on the territory, but with the Russian presidential elections in mid-March, Kiev has multiplied its attacks.

One person was killed and several were injured Friday in a bombing in Russia’s Belgorod region, on the border with Ukraine, the local governor said.

The Ministry of Defense said it destroyed eight rockets flying over this region, launched with a Vampire missile launch system from Ukraine.