On Wednesday night, Russian drones attacked an area near a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy reported, according to the Russian-language BBC server.
According to him, the explosion damaged the windows in the area of the nuclear facility. Regional authorities had previously reported at least 16 injured and damaged buildings in a nearby town.
Russia sent 11 drones into Ukrainian territory overnight, the Ukrainian military said on social media, saying they had all been destroyed. Similar claims by hostile parties cannot be directly verified from independent sources in the conditions of a war conflict.
“In the Šepetivský district, as a result of the downing of enemy air targets, drones landed on the site of a critical infrastructure facility. The pressure wave damaged non-residential premises, residential buildings and vehicles. 16 residents of nearby buildings with various injuries turned to the hospital with a request for medical help,” Serhiy Tjurin, a representative of the military regional administration, said before the ministry’s announcement.
Debris from drones fell on the city of Slavuta, where it damaged 11 multi-storey residential buildings and nine houses, two educational facilities, an office building, a shop and cars, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a telegram. According to the mayor of the city, schools will be closed on Wednesday in Slavuta.
Rescue services also reported damage to the fire and police station buildings in Slavuta and the nearby town of Netišyn as a result of the pressure wave.
The Ukrainian editorial staff of the BBC points out that the Khmelnytsky nuclear power plant is located about 17 kilometers as the crow flies from Slavuta. According to her, the Russian army is attacking in this direction for the fourth night in a row.
According to Reuters, the Khmelnytsky region, which lies roughly 200 kilometers east of the Ukrainian-Polish border, is a frequent target of Russian attacks.
The southern Ukrainian Kherson region also announced the attack by Russian troops on Wednesday. A 42-year-old man was killed when a guided missile hit a residential area of the town of Beryslav on the opposite bank from Kachovka. According to local authorities, Russia shelled the city a total of 35 times.
How Ukraine is prepared for another winter of Russian missile attacks
ANALYSIS. Ukraine should be better off defending its critical infrastructure against Russian attacks than it was last year. But experts point out that the advantages of experience and new weapons can be erased by one completely opaque factor – ammunition.