KYIV, Ukraine >> Russian forces struck several of Ukraine’s energy facilities with drones and missiles early today, in a major air assault that targeted cities across the country, including some near the borders with NATO members.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 53 missiles at its territory, that it had shot down two-thirds, and that some had been heading toward the western Zakarpattia and Lviv regions, which border Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, countries that are part of NATO. The Polish army said its fighter jets and those of other allies had been scrambled to protect their borders in case a Russian weapon crossed them, as has happened in the past.
The strike today was Russia’s sixth attack on energy facilities in Ukraine since March, part of a wider campaign seemingly aimed at cutting off power to swaths of the country and making life miserable for civilians.
The barrage of missiles, which a top Ukrainian official said had injured about 20 people and which targeted a part of the country that has been less affected by the war, could add urgency to Ukraine’s recent calls for help from allies to protect its vulnerable regions. The attack followed a week in which several NATO allies signaled approval for Ukraine’s limited firing of Western weapons into Russia, culminating with the United States on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine argued in an interview with The New York Times last month that if Ukraine’s Western neighbors shot down Russian missiles coming close to their own borders — without having their planes cross into Ukrainian airspace — it would ease the burden on the Ukrainian army, which is facing shortages of air defense ammunition and weapons.
“Technically, all of this is possible,” Zelenskyy said. “Shooting down Russian missiles already in Ukrainian territory, from their planes.”
Ukraine’s dearth of air defense systems has left some areas far more exposed than others. Russia has made the most of this situation in recent months, hitting cities and regions that do not enjoy the same protection as Kyiv, the capital, which is shielded by powerful U.S.-made Patriot systems.
That was evident again in today’s attack, which hit energy facilities in five regions in western, central and southeastern Ukraine. DTEK, the country’s largest private electricity company, reported serious damage to two of its power plants. “And again, an extremely difficult night for the Ukrainian energy industry,” the company said in a statement.
Authorities said Ukraine had lost about eight gigawatts of capacity since March — about half of its generating capacity at the start of the year — prompting them to introduce rolling blackouts to conserve energy. Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s national electricity operator, said customers would face power cuts from 6 p.m. to midnight today.
The attack appeared to have particularly affected Ukraine’s western regions, which have been spared heavier bombardment for much of the war.
Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of the Lviv region, near Poland, said that six cruise missiles had hit three “critical infrastructure facilities” in the region, without specifying exactly what was hit. Just south of Lviv, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, local officials said that a fire had broken out at an energy facility.
The Ukrainian air force also said missiles were heading toward the city of Mukachevo in the southwestern Zakarpattia region, less than about 25 miles from the borders with Hungary and Slovakia.
Officials in Ukraine have argued that if its allies were to use their own air defense systems to shoot down Russian missiles flying near their borders, it would allow the country to redeploy its air defense weapons stationed in those areas to other areas facing near-daily air assaults.
“It is important to shoot down Russian missiles in the sovereign airspace of Ukraine and thereby allow Ukraine to concentrate its scarce antimissile systems in the east and south of the country,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskyy, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app Friday.
Ukrainian authorities, for example, have discussed with Poland the possibility of shooting down Russian missiles with Polish air defenses.
They have also suggested that a French-Italian SAMP/T air defense system stationed in Romania, which borders southwestern Ukraine, could be used to shoot down Russian missiles. But two French officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss military matters, said France was reluctant to do so, in part because the system was needed to protect NATO troops stationed in Romania.
Analysts say that downing Russian weapons from NATO territory is the kind of involvement that the United States and European governments have resisted, because it could provoke retaliation by Russia.
But Ukrainian officials could cite attacks such as Saturday’s assault in pressing their case, just as they pointed to Russia’s recent offensive in the northeast when urging their allies to lift a ban on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons to attack inside Russia.
Zelensky, in his interview with the Times, argued that shooting down Russian missiles from NATO territory would not lead to escalation.
“Why can’t we shoot them down? Is it defense? Yes. Is it an attack on Russia? No. Are you shooting down Russian planes and killing Russian pilots? No,” the Ukrainian leader said. “So what’s the issue with involving NATO countries in the war? There is no such issue. It’s defense.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned this past week, though, that any Western countries helping Ukraine strike into Russia should be aware of “what they’re playing with.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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