Russia launched a massive wave of deadly overnight attacks on Ukraine that targeted energy infrastructure.

“There were more than 60 ‘Shaheds’ and almost 90 missiles of various types overnight,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.

“Dozens of power system facilities have been damaged. Emergency blackouts in seven regions,” Ukrenergo, the state-run grid operator, said on Telegram.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of the city of Mariupol, under Russian control since 2022, said on Telegram that a Russian missile had hit a trolley in the Dnipro hydroelectric station, also in Zaporizhzhia, killing civilians traveling on it.

“There are victims and casualties among civilians,” Oleksandr Symchyshyn, mayor of the western city of Khmelnytskyi, wrote on Telegram.

Another missile severed one of two power lines supplying Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Facebook that shelling had knocked out “one of the power transmission lines feeding” the nuclear power plant.

“This situation is extremely dangerous and risks sparking an emergency situation,” said Ukraine’s atomic energy operator Energoatom.

In the event that the final power line is cut, it said the plant will be “on the verge of another blackout, which is a serious violation of the conditions of safe operation of the plant.”

According to Zaporizhzhia’s governor, 12 Russian missiles hit the region early Friday, destroying several houses and injuring an unknown number of people.

“According to initial reports, seven houses were destroyed, 35 were damaged,” Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram, adding that people had been injured.

Russia’s defense ministry said it had downed eight rockets fired on Belgorod.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry said it had downed eight rockets fired on Belgorod on Friday from Ukraine with Vampire rocket launchers.

“Another new strike. Sadly one person died,” Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that the victim was a woman.

“People have been wounded.”

He said three health centers and several homes had been damaged.

Anti-Kremlin fighters

In Kyiv, a coalition of Russians fighting for Ukraine on Thursday vowed to continue their brazen cross-border raids into Russia.

The anti-Kremlin fighters held a press conference after carrying out armed attacks in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk border regions.

They shared video footage of heavily armed fighters crossing the border in a tank, firing on Russian army vehicles and troops and blowing up buildings.

“It’s probably no exaggeration to say we’ve opened up a second front, taking full-scale military action into the enemy territory,” said Denis Nikitin, leader of one of the groups involved, the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Russian funds for Ukraine

In Brussels, European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to “take work forward” on a plan to use the profits from frozen Russian central bank assets to arm Ukraine, as Kyiv pleaded for more ammunition for its outgunned forces.

The proposal, at the heart of talks between leaders at a summit in Brussels, could unlock some three billion euros ($3.3 billion) a year for Kyiv — once given a final green light.

“I’m glad that leaders endorsed our proposal to use the extraordinary revenues from immobilized Russian assets. This will provide funding for military equipment to Ukraine,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters.

The Kremlin warned it would use legal and “other methods of retaliation” to hit back.                                       

WITH AFP