Russia’s defence ministry said Saturday that its forces carried out a large-scale overnight attack on infrastructure targets across Ukraine. Its targets included the country’s largest steelworks, in Kryvyi Rih.
In its statement, the ministry said the plant supplied steel products to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, Reuters reported.
ArcelorMittal is the plant’s owner. It suspended operations there in September, after a series of Russian ballistic missile strikes, Reuters reported.
Also hit, the ministry said, were an electricity substation in Zhytomyr, in northwestern Ukraine, and another steel plant in Zaporizhzhia, near the front line.
The ministry said a cargo vessel in the Black Sea was also hit. It alleged the ship was carrying military cargo to Ukraine’s Odesa port.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described a much wider attack. Posting on X, he said Russia had carried out one of its largest strikes yet on Ukraine’s energy sector, hitting more than 15 critical power generation and transmission facilities across different regions.
Restoration work is ongoing, with all necessary services and all available resources of Ukrainian energy companies involved, he wrote.
The most difficult situation was in Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Shepetivka, Slavuta and Netishyn, according to the post. Energy facilities in the Kharkiv, Kyiv and Dnipro regions were also hit.
Between 7 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, more than 320 jet-powered and gasoline-powered “shaheds,” along with loitering munitions, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, were used against Ukraine’s energy sector, cities and communities, Zelenskyy wrote.
“Russia is trying to cause a blackout in Ukraine – right before winter,” he wrote. “Russia is trying to leave millions of our people without electricity and heating.”
Zelenskyy also criticized the decision in America to waive the Lindsey Graham Act, the sanctions law meant to impose effective pressure on Russia. A decision was made “to completely disregard” the Act, he wrote, adding that it “could have helped enormously – and still can.”
European partners have already prepared new support packages for Ukraine, Zelenskyy wrote, thanking them for the help.
Reuters said it could not independently confirm the ministry’s report.
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