Russia strikes power plants in Kharkiv in response to Ukraine’s battlefield success

Europe, News September 12, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Ukraine’s eastern region is suffering from a complete power and water outage as Russian cruise missiles hit the utility supply infrastructure in the Kharkiv region on September 11, 2022.

The attack reportedly came in response to Ukraine’s recent gains in the Kharkiv region as the Ukrainian troops forced Kremlin into a humiliating retreat from the northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukraine has said it had retaken more than 3,000 square km (1,158 square miles) in less than two weeks, Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said.

According to Ihor Terekhov, Mayor of Kharkiv city, Russian forces carried out a cruise missile strike on Kharkiv’s number 5 power station, plunging Ukraine’s second-largest city into complete darkness and cutting off its water supply.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “A total blackout in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, a partial one in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.

A total blackout in the Kharkiv & Donetsk regions, a partial one in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk & Sumy regions. RF terrorists remain terrorists & attack critical infrastructure. No military facilities, the goal is to deprive people of light & heat. #RussiaIsATerroristState
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 11, 2022

There were also reports of blackouts in neighboring regions of Sumy and Poltava as well as partial blackouts in Dnipropetrovsk. The power outage also affected several hospitals in the area.

By the early hours of September 12, Kyiv authorities said that electric power and water supplies had been restored to some 80 percent in the Kharkiv region. However, the city again lost water and electricity supplies due to renewed Russian shelling.

The Deputy Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said that the power has been restored at some places in the region, however, a large-scale fire was still raging at the power station and the authorities were trying to control it.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched a total of 11 cruise missiles toward Ukraine’s eastern region but most of them were destroyed. Tymoshenko described that two Russian cruise missiles targeted crucial civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and took out the power station that managed electricity and water supply in the region. A fire broke out at the power station soon after the missiles hit. He did not report any casualties as a result of the missile attacks.

The Russian missile attack also disrupted railway operations in the region, with the national train service announcing delays throughout the east including in Kharkiv. The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink also joined the Ukrainian officials in condemning the attacks.

Kyiv claims that the Russian missile strike on civilian infrastructure is Moscow’s ‘revenge’ for Ukraine’s recent battlefield success. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying out “terrorist” attacks on civilian infrastructure targets.

Zelenskyy said in a message on Telegram that “Ukraine and the civilized world clearly see these terrorist acts” and that Russia was trying to deprive the Ukrainian people of “gas, light, water and food”.

Destruction in Ukraine — ^{An aerial view shows a residential building destroyed by shelling, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. (Image Credit: Maksim Levin/Reuters)}

In a separate event on September 11, Ukraine shut down the last operating reactor of Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant to avoid any catastrophe as a result of the intensified fighting in the nearby regions. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces are carrying out severe shelling on each other in close proximity to the Russian-held Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia plant, risking a release of radiation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had shown severe concerns about a catastrophe that could result if the plant had kept running amid the raging attacks.