Agence France-Presse Nighttime Russian strikes massively hit Ukraine on Friday, killing at least five people and damaging energy infrastructure, and the Kremlin acknowledged that Russia was “in a state of war” after two years of imposed euphemisms. During the night from Thursday to Friday, large-scale Russian bombings targeted Ukraine, according to Kiev, mainly directed against the country's energy network. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said two people were killed and at least eight others injured in Khmelnytsky (west). Three people died in the east-central city of Zaporizhia, according to the regional administration. In Moscow, the spokesperson for Russian President Dmitry Peskov admitted: We find ourselves in a state of war. Since the start of the invasion in February 2022, the Kremlin has repressed the use of the word war with fines and prison sentences. Russian officials have sometimes used this term regarding the situation in Ukraine, but in reference to the conflict that they accuse the West of waging against Russia. Consult the complete file View full file FollowFollow Yes, it started as a special military operation, but as soon as […] the collective West participated in all this alongside Ukraine, for us it became a war , said Mr. Peskov in an interview with the media Argoumenty i Fakty. Russian forces launched more than 60 Shaheds [an Iranian-made explosive drone, editor's note] and almost 90 missiles of different types during the night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky listed on social networks, offering his condolences to the families of the victims. According to Mr. Zelensky, the attacks targeted power plants, high-voltage lines, a hydroelectric dam, residences and even a trolleybus.< /p> These large-scale strikes led to power cuts in at least seven regions of the country and damaged “dozens” of installations, Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo said. One of the two power lines supplying the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, occupied by Moscow, was cut by a bombing, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy also announced, German Galushchenko. The situation is extremely dangerous, because if the last line stops working, the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant will be on the verge of a new blackout, warned Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear operator. < p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later confirmed that the emergency line connected to the plant was still functioning. < p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">The Energy Minister called the nighttime bombing the biggest attack on Ukraine's energy industry in recent times. The Ukrainian president indicated that Russia had targeted Kharkiv and its region, as well as the regions of Zaporizhia, Sumy (North), Poltava and Dnipro (center), Odessa (South), Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia and Frankivsk (West). ). President Zelensky was once again annoyed by the slowness of Western assistance, while American aid has been blocked for months because of political rivalries between Republicans and Democrats and that of American aid has been blocked for months. European Union has fallen significantly behind schedule. Russian missiles are not behind schedule, unlike packets of missiles ;help to our country. The Shaheds are not undecided, unlike some politicians, he quipped. Russia had already launched a massive attack on Kiev at dawn on Thursday, the first since early February. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised previously that he was going to take revenge for the increase in Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks affecting Russian territory, more than two years after he ordered the invasion of Ukraine. p> The Kremlin has long assured Russians that the war would not affect their daily lives or the country's territory, but as the Russian presidential election approaches in mid-March, these attacks have increased. One person was killed and several others were injured Friday morning in a strike on the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, said the local governor. The Russian security services (FSB) also announced on Friday that they had arrested seven people in Moscow accused of being linked to a group of pro-Ukraine fighters, author of armed incursions into Russia in recent days. Since last week, these groups have claimed armed incursions into the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, with Moscow's army claiming to have repelled their assaults.
Dmitri Peskov (Archive photo)War in Ukraine
