Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure during Christmas Day attack

Russia targets Ukrainian energy infrastructure during Christmas Day attack

Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning.

The strikes on Ukrainian fuel and energy sources included 78 air-, ground- and sea-launched missiles as well as 106 Shaheds and other types of drones, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones, with 52 more drones being jammed.

“Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. “They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine.” 

In Russia, meanwhile, one woman died and three people were wounded after falling debris from a downed drone sparked a fire in a shopping mall in the city of Vladikavkaz.

The head of Russia’s republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Sergey Menyaylo, said security footage showed that the explosion took place outside the Alania Mall Wednesday morning.

At least one person was killed in Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s Dnipro region, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on messaging app Telegram, adding that heating was disrupted for 155 residential buildings in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. He also said 500,000 recipients or 2,677 buildings in Kharkiv region were without heat.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said one Russian missile passed Moldovan and Romanian airspace. 

Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said Russia again “massively attacks energy infrastructure,” in a Facebook statement. Ukraine’s Air Force alerted multiple missiles fired at Kharkiv, Dnipro and Poltava regions east of the country. 

Halushchenko said the power distributor took the necessary measures to limit consumption. “As soon as the security situation allows, energy workers will establish the damage caused,” he said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday it had conducted a “massive strike” on what it said were critical energy facilities in Ukraine that support the work of Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.

“The aim of the strike was achieved. All facilities have been hit,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Russian forces had also taken control of the settlement of Vidrodzhennia in eastern Ukraine.

More than a dozen attacks on Ukraine’s power grid

Ukraine’s biggest private energy company, DTEK, said Russia struck one of their thermal power plants Wednesday morning, making it the 13th attack on Ukraine’s power grid this year.

“Denying light and warmth to millions of peace-loving people as they celebrate Christmas is a depraved and evil act that must be answered,” Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, wrote on his X account.

Ukrainian state energy operator, Ukrenergo, applied preemptive power outages across the country, due to a “massive missile attack,” leading to electricity going out in several districts of the capital, Kyiv.

At least seven strikes targeted Kharkiv, sparking fires across the city, regional head Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At least three people were injured, local authorities said.

“Kharkiv is under massive missile fire. A series of explosions rang out in the city and there are still ballistic missiles flying in the direction of the city. Stay in safe places,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said in its report Wednesday that it had shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over the Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Bryansk and Tambov regions, as well as over the Azov Sea. It did not mention the incident in North Ossetia-Alania.

Four people were also killed as a result of Ukrainian shelling in the town of Lgov in the Kursk region, regional head Alexander Khinshtein said. Three people died after several residential blocks and a beauty salon were hit, he said. Another person later died in a hospital.

Published at Wed, 25 Dec 2024 11:12:54 +0000

Syrian Christians call for greater protections after Christmas tree burned

Scores of Syrian Christians protested in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, demanding greater protections for their religious minority after a Christmas tree was set on fire in the city of Hama a day earlier.

Many of the insurgents who now rule Syria are jihadis, although Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaeda and spent years depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance.

It remains unclear who set the Christmas tree on fire on Monday, an act that was condemned by a representative of HTS who visited the town and addressed the community.

“This act was committed by people who are not Syrian, and they will be punished beyond your expectations,” the representative said in a video widely shared on social media.

“The Christmas tree will be fully restored by this evening.”

On Tuesday, protesters marched through the streets of Bab Touma, a neighbourhood in Damascus, shouting slogans against foreign fighters and carrying large wooden crosses.

“We demand that Syria be for all Syrians. We want a voice in the future of our country,” said Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church as he addressed the crowd in a church courtyard, assuring them of Christians’ rights in Syria.

Since HTS led a swift offensive that overthrew former president Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Syria’s minority communities have been on edge, uncertain of how they will be treated under the emerging rebel-led government.

“We are here to demand a democratic and free government for one people and one nation,” another protester said. “We stand united — Muslims and Christians. No to sectarianism.”

Published at Tue, 24 Dec 2024 16:45:37 +0000