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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
William Mata

Two dead in Kharkiv as Russia launches huge attack on Ukraine power grid

At least two people have been killed in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv in Russian shelling as part of a targeted onslaught on the national power grid. 

The shelling hit an area of "dense residential development", according to city mayor Ihor Terekhov, who said that another 18 people were wounded.

Russia launched a new barrage of missiles and drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said on Saturday, damaging energy facilities in the south east and west. 

Ukraine is struggling with a new wave of rolling blackouts after relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. 

The assaults started three months ago and have taken out half the country's power generation capacity.

In its eighth major attack on energy facilities overnight, Russia fired 16 missiles and 13 Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ukraine's air defences intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, the air force said.

State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the strikes damaged equipment at facilities in southeastern Zaporizhzhia and the western Lviv region.

Two energy workers were injured in Zaporizhzhia when a fire broke out at an energy facility, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.

With no major changes reported along the 1,000km (600 mile) front line, where a recent push by the Kremlin's forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides have taken aim at infrastructure targets, seeking to curb each other's ability to fight in a war that is now in its third year.

Moscow's overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia and Lviv follows Ukrainian military strikes on three oil refineries in southern Russia overnight into Friday.

Air defences destroyed five drones over the Sea of Azov and the country's western Bryansk and Smolensk regions, the Russian Ministry of Defence said.

A man was killed in shelling of Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The governor of eastern Ukraine's partly occupied Donetsk region said on Saturday that Russian attacks had killed five people and wounded seven the previous day.

In the Russia-controlled part of the region, Moscow-installed governor Denis Pushilin said three people were killed and four were injured in shelling by Ukrainian forces on Saturday morning.

A policeman was killed in the partly occupied region of Kherson as a result of a Russian drone attack on a checkpoint, the Ukrainian National Police said.

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