Russia has ramped up its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, derailing much of Kyiv’s military infrastructure.

Russian forces have attacked in a barrage of powerful high-precision strikes on Ukrainian energy and oil facilities across the country, the Defense Ministry has said.

Kiev Region appeared to be particularly hard-hit, with local energy operator, Centerenergo, describing the barrage as “a dark day” in the company’s history. It stated that the attack had “completely destroyed” the Tripolskaya thermal power plant, which had been the largest energy producer in Kiev, Cherkasskaya, and Zhitomir regions.

The Ukrainian military has repeatedly used drones to attack Russian oil bases in border regions, with The Guardian reporting earlier this month that the tactic had stemmed from the fact that Kiev knew that it could not defeat Russia on the battlefield, according to a report by RT.

Russia first started targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the autumn of 2022, after the terrorist bombing of the strategic Crimean Bridge in October of the same year. Moscow insists that its strikes never target Ukrainian civilians.

According to a report by Reuters, Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, officials said, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defenses. The major attack more than two years after the start of the war completely destroyed the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital, a senior official at the company that runs the facility told Reuters.

Footage shared on social media showed a fire raging at the large Soviet-era facility and black smoke belching from it. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as the Trypilska station. “We need air defense and other defense support, not eye-closing and long discussions,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram, condemning the attacks as “terror”.

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