Russian authorities on Tuesday blamed Ukraine for drone attacks that damaged Zuivska and Starobesheve thermal power plants in Russian controlled eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian-intalled leader of the region, Denis Pushilin, writing on Telegram said that “unprecedented” attacks on the power plants have left many settlements without power, causing the closing of boiler houses and filtration station. Pushilin said 500,000 people were left without electricity across several districts.
According to local Telegram channels, the transformer of the second boiler has been put out of service during the attack on the Zuivska power plant. Emergency crews were working to restore power supplies.
The attacks on the thermal power plants come amid intensified Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russian strategic facilities in occupied parts of Donetsk region in the past few weeks with the aim of undermining Moscow’s efforts to sustain its war of invasion. Ukraine has been deploying drones and missiles in its long-range strikes on targets in Russian-held parts of Ukraine and on Russian territory. In recent weeks, these strikes have also involved the use of ground-launched long-range Flamingo missile that has has a range of over to 3,000 km and can reach Moscow. The missile has a warhead of 1,150 kilograms.
