Russians launch massive strike on Ukraine’s power infrastructure, casualties reported

Russian forces conducted a large-scale combined missile attack on Ukraine’s power infrastructure on November 17, 2024, targeting power generation and transmission facilities nationwide, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced.

Aftermath of the Russian shelling in the Odesa Oblast

Russia launched around 120 missiles and 90 drones during a “massive combined strike on all regions of Ukraine”, Volodymyr Zelensky said. Ukrainian air defences destroyed more than 144 targets.

The attack forced Ukraine’s transmission system operator Ukrenergo to implement emergency power outages in Kyiv city, Kyiv Oblast, Donetsk Oblast, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Critical infrastructure was hit in the Vinnytsia and Volyn regions and explosions were also heard in the cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporizhzhia, according to local media.

Aftermath of the Russian shelling in the Poltava Oblast

“Emergency workers and power engineers are already working to deal with the aftermath [of the attack] where possible,” Halushchenko said.

Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK reported that the latest Russian missile and drone attacks caused “significant damage” to its thermal energy plants in a statement this morning. It was the eighth large-scale attack on its energy facilities this year. The company’s thermal plants have been targeted more than 190 times since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

To provide background, on September 25, 2022, Zelenskyy revealed that as a result of Russian attacks, 80% of Ukraine’s power generation has been destroyed. According to the President, Russian attacks have led to the complete destruction of Ukraine’s thermal power plants and a significant reduction in hydroelectric power generation, potentially plunging millions into a heating crisis this winter.

According to experts surveyed by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, power outages in Ukraine could last from 4 to 18 hours per day this winter.

According to the State Emergency Service, as a result of the Russian shelling, fires broke out in three private houses in the Odesa Oblast, and four more houses were partially destroyed. According to initial reports, a 17-year-old boy was injured during the attack and two other people were killed, as reported by the head of the Odesa Oblast Military Administration on the national joint 24/7 newscast.

Aftermath of the shelling in Odesa Oblast

Moreover, a Russian drone strike destroyed a residential building in Mykolaiv, killing three women and injuring six others, including two children, according to Mykolaiv Oblast Military Administration head Vitalii Kim. Russians also damaged cars, a shopping centre, and infrastructure in the city. 

Two rail workers were killed after Russian air strikes on railways and rail depots in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the national railway carrier.

A 66-year-old woman died in the Lviv region in western Ukraine, the area’s regional head Maksym Kozytskyy reported. The woman was in her car at the time of the attack and was killed by falling fragments of an enemy rocket. In addition, two other men have been injured.

Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Andrii Sybiha says Russia’s overnight attack is Vladimir Putin’s “true response” to Moscow’s recent diplomatic dealings with foreign countries.

“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” he wroted on X.

“This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently,” Sybiha noted and added that world community needs peace in the region through strength, not appeasement.

It is known, the Russian Federation uses temporarily occupied Crimea as a military foothold for its military aggression from the south of Ukraine, shelling Ukrainian cities from the peninsula. Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated the importance of de-occupying the Crimean Peninsula.

Ukraine urges the international community to unite in restoring global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognized 1991 borders, while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.

Earlier, Bohdan Bernatskyy, a member of the Sanctions Policy Working Group of the Crimean Platform Expert Network, revealed at the Third Parliamentary Summit in Latvia that over 1,300 Russian military companies and 2 million industry workers continue operating, many without international restrictions.

As is known, Slovakia is financing the Russia’s war in Ukraine through the purchase of Russian oil. Moreover, as TASR reported, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Juraj Blajar wants to discuss at the EU level the extension of the exemption from the ban on imports of Russian pipeline oil.

Previously, Reuters reported that the United States is watching growing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic closely and some of their recent military collaboration in the region sends “concerning signals”, the U.S. Russia and China have stepped up military cooperation in the Arctic while deepening overall ties in recent years that include China supplying Moscow with dual-use goods despite Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine.