March 22, 2024 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported today that, over March 16-22, the Russian Armed Forces had carried out a total of 49 strikes against Ukrainian power and military industry facilities, railway junctions and arsenals, decision-making centers, “and locations where Ukrainian military personnel and foreign mercenaries are deployed,” TASS reported today. The strikes, using high-precision missiles (including Kinzhal hypersonics) and drones, were carried out in retaliation for Ukraine’s shelling of Russian territory during and after the March 15-17 Russian presidential elections, a ministry spokesman told reporters.
These include striking two sites in Kyiv on March 21, and a wave of strikes early this Friday morning, March 22, targeting power generation, transmission and distribution which has left multiple regions of Ukraine without electricity. That, in turn, has knocked out Internet communication and the water supply in some parts of the country. Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric plant, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant, has been shut down, with one of its units destroyed. No damage was inflicted on its associated dam, however.
The head of Ukraine’s public electricity transmission authority, Ukrenergo, Vadim Kudrytsky called today’s wave of strikes “the largest ever, characterized by the use of a combination of weapons … targeting thermal and hydroelectric power plants, as well as the main electricity substations managed by Ukrenergo.”
