Russia attacks Ukrainian psychiatric hospital, energy facilities; Kyiv launches drones at Russia
Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia had launched 34 missiles against Ukraine overnight, of which 21 had been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
In a post on Telegram, Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities in Dnipro in the south of the country and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been attacked and that an engineer was injured.
Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged and that there were “casualties,” without going into detail.
This month Russia destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others in a massive missile and drone attack as it renewed its push to target Ukraine’s energy facilities.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is facing intense Russian airstrikes, but its residents are defiant. “We can stand up, no matter what they do,” one said.
Ukraine has appealed to its Western allies for more air defense systems to ward off such attacks. At a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced the U.S. will provide Ukraine with additional munitions and gear for its air defense launchers.
Farther east, a psychiatric hospital was damaged and one person was wounded after Russia launched a missile attack overnight on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Photos from the scene showed a huge crater on the grounds of the facility and patients taking shelter in corridors. Regional Gov. Oleh Sinegubov said a 53-year-old woman was hurt.
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Also in the Kharkiv region, a man was killed in an overnight attack on the city of Vovchansk, according to Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Russian air defense systems had intercepted 66 drones over the country’s southern Krasnodar region. Two more drones were shot down over the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula, it said.
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, said that Ukrainian forces targeted an oil refinery and infrastructure facilities but that there were no casualties or serious damage. The regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry reported that a fire broke out at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban during the attack.
Ukraine’s port of Odesa is a key Russian target, endangering the city’s UNESCO-designated historic center and challenging citizens to keep their sense of humor.
Ukrainian officials normally decline to comment on attacks on Russian soil, but the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said Saturday that two oil refineries in the Krasnodar region had been hit by drones.
Five people were wounded in a drone attack in a border village in Russia’s Belgorod region, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
In the Friday announcement about weapons aid, Austin said the U.S. will provide additional Patriot missiles as part of a massive $6-billion aid package.
The missiles will be used to replenish previously supplied Patriot air defense systems and are part of a package that also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry, much of which still dates from the Soviet era.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said the country “urgently” needed missile systems to protect Ukrainian cities. “This is what can and should save lives right now.”
Zelensky discussed the need for Patriots at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries gathering virtually in a Pentagon-led meeting.
The meeting fell on the second anniversary of the group, which Austin said has “moved heaven and earth” since April 2022 to source millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket systems, armored vehicles and even jets to help Ukraine rebuff Russia’s invasion.
At a Pentagon news conference after the meeting, Austin said the U.S. was continuing to work with allies to resource additional Patriot systems but did not commit to sending more U.S. versions.
“It’s not just Patriot that they need, they need other types of systems and interceptors as well,” Austin said. “I would caution us all in terms of making Patriot the silver bullet.”
Friday’s meeting followed the White House decision to approve the delivery of $1 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, such as air defense munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons.
That aid, however, will get to Ukraine quickly because it is being pulled off Pentagon shelves, including in warehouses in Europe.
The large back-to-back packages are the result of the new infusion of about $61 billion in funding for Ukraine that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden on Wednesday.
Novikov writes for the Associated Press.
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