Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is accusing Russia of deliberately targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The national energy operator says attacks have damaged high-voltage facilities in the south -- forcing emergency electricity shutdowns in Odesa, and nearby.

Odesa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made accusations against Russia, alleging that it has intentionally targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The national energy operator has reported that attacks have led to significant damage to high-voltage facilities located in the southern region of the country. As a consequence of these attacks, emergency electricity shutdowns have been enforced in Odesa and its surrounding areas.



Russia targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure and gas production

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is accusing Russia of deliberately targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The national energy operator says attacks on Sunday have damaged high-voltage facilities in the south, forcing emergency electricity shutdowns in Odessa and nearby. Several power plants have been destroyed or they've been damaged in recent weeks. Zelensky has also called on Western powers to provide more military hardware to fight Russia. Russian terrorists are now targeting vile strikes to cause the energy bleeding of Ukraine. We gave all the necessary signals to our partners, all the specific requests to everyone who has the necessary air defense systems, to everyone who has the necessary missiles. America, Europe, our other partners, everyone knows what we need. Everyone knows how important it is right now to help us protect ourselves from these blows. George Trafford's Lyfaros in Ukraine's capital keeps a Russia partly targeting power infrastructure. Multiple cities coping with blackouts, Johnny. That's right, this is the largest escalation, Rob, that we've seen by Russian forces in targeting energy infrastructure over the last couple of weeks. Basically since the winter of 22-23, where there were so many attacks again right the way across the country. Now the Ukraine's largest private energy company, a company called DTEK, is saying that five of its six plants have been damaged. 80% of their generating capacity, DTEK says, is lost. To put that in context, DTEK supplies around a quarter of the country with electricity. DTEK saying that this is going to take potentially up to 18 months for those repairs to be made. But those six plants are just a drop in the ocean in relation to other energy plants, energy facilities that have been hit by Russia in recent weeks. And of course, yes, there are rolling blackouts that are ongoing in various locations across the country. Now the Kremlin has said in the last week or so that these attacks are, in the Kremlin's words, revenge for attacks that Ukraine have been making deep inside Russia, targeting their energy facilities, oil installations, for example. And that's something that interestingly has made the US unhappy. Of course, the US, Ukraine's largest ally, Washington are concerned that these attacks by Ukraine on Russia's oil facilities could result in an even greater escalation. And of course, they're concerned about an increase in global oil prices. But it's been very interesting to hear Zelensky respond to these kind of complaints in the last couple of days. He spoke to the Washington Post. He said that it was Ukraine's right to defend itself because basically Ukraine is suffering such a deficit in air defences. And he said that if the Ukrainians are forced to suffer these kind of attacks, then Russians should too. And he also said that Ukraine is using its own technology, its own weaponry not supplied by the West to carry out these attacks deep inside Russia. But yeah, as this escalation continues, it only highlights just once again how vulnerable Ukraine is to Russia's attacks anywhere in Ukraine at any time at once. And Charles, just as you're talking there, there's a line that's come in from the Reuters news agency just quoting a Russian aid news agency, which is in turn quoting the Russian Defence Ministry saying Russia has struck Ukraine's energy infrastructure and gas production facilities. So it's confirming that those attacks have been carried out on behalf of Russia. But Charles, for now, thank you very much indeed.

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