Russia launches major Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

 

Russia launches major Christmas Day attack on Ukraine’s energy system

 

Zelenskyy describes cruise and ballistic missile strikes, which caused blackouts in several regions, as ‘inhuman’

 

Pjotr Sauer and agencies

Wed 25 Dec 2024 08.39 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/25/russia-christmas-day-attack-ukraine-energy-system

 

Christmas morning in Ukraine was overshadowed by a massive Russian aerial attack using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across the country, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned as “inhuman”.

 

“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram.

 

He said there had been hits and blackouts in several regions. “The targets are our energy. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he said.

 

The attack left half a million people in Kharkiv region without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere.

 

“Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas,” Zelenskyy said.

 

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said the transmission system operator had imposed restrictions on the electricity supply to minimise the impact.

 

At least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said.

 

“Kharkiv is under a massive missile attack. A series of explosions were heard in the city and there are still ballistic missiles heading towards the city,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram early on Wednesday.

 

The governor of Kherson region also reported on Wednesday that one person had been killed in the last 24 hours. In Dnipropetrovsk region, a search and rescue operation after strikes on Christmas Eve found a 43-year-old man had been killed and 17 others wounded, the Dnipropetrovsk governor, Sergiy Lysak, said.

 

Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing that it had conducted a massive strike on critical energy infrastructure facilities that supply Ukraine’s defence industry.

 

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, called the attacks “Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine”.

 

She said on X: “More than 70 missiles and 100 drones, directed at Ukrainian families celebrating in their homes and the energy infrastructure that keeps them warm. For the third holiday season, Russia weaponises winter.”

 

Ukrainians were marking their second Christmas on 25 December, according to a new calendar in another step towards erasing Russian influence.

 

Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, set up in 2018, agreed in 2023 to move away from the traditional Julian calendar used in Russia where Christmas is celebrated on 7 January.

 

Since the start of the war in February 2022, Russia has severely damaged Ukraine’s power grid by repeatedly bombing it, almost halving its generating capacity and causing regular power cuts.

 

Ukraine has regularly appealed to its allies for more robust air-defence systems to thwart Russian attacks on the country’s power system.

 

“This year, it is the 13th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the 10th massive attack on the company’s energy facilities,” Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said.

 

Washington cleared Ukraine in November to use long-range US missiles against military targets inside Russia, prompting fiery rhetoric and vows of retaliation from Moscow.

 

Russia launched almost 200 missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in November, with Zelenskyy alleging cluster munitions had been fired in what he called a “despicable escalation” almost three years into the war.

 

Ukraine, meanwhile, launched another drone attack on several regions in Russia, including Kursk and the Republic of North Ossetia. In Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, a fire broke out in a shopping mall after fragments of a drone reportedly struck the building.

 

On Sunday, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatened Kyiv with “more destruction” after Ukrainian drones struck several buildings in the Russian city of Kazan the previous day.

 

Both sides are manoeuvring to strengthen their positions before US president-elect, Donald Trump, takes office in January.

 

With the incoming Trump administration promising to swiftly end the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv are warily considering the prospect of talks.

 

Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the frontline in the face of troop and ammunition shortages.

 

With his troops on the offensive, Putin last week signalled that he was in no hurry to seek an end to the war, which is nearing the three-year mark.

 

Speaking during his annual set-piece television event, he reiterated his hardline conditions for ending the war, which include Ukraine refraining from joining Nato, adopting a neutral status, and undergoing partial demilitarisation. He also insisted that Moscow retain control of Crimea along with the four Ukrainian regions he claimed in 2022.