Russian strikes have hit a number of key targets in Ukraine, with a facility used for producing missiles among the infrastructure destroyed, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Friday.
The Russian military delivered “a focused strike with long-range precision weapons fired from air, sea and surface platforms” on targets in Ukraine, the ministry said in a briefing. It described the attacked sites as belonging to Kiev’s “military control system, military-industrial complex and associated fuel and energy infrastructure.”
Among the targets hit were “facilities used for manufacturing rockets” and an ammo depot with “artillery pieces supplied by Western nations and prepared for delivery to troops.” The strikes disrupted the Ukrainian army’s logistics, the ministry assessed.
The Ukrainian gas giant Naftogaz reported on Thursday that Russia had attacked gas extraction facilities during the Thursday raid, with at least two sites destroyed and others damaged. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal reported a strike at the missile producer Yuzhmash in the city of Dnepr in the southeastern part of Ukraine.
The Russian military started targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure in early October, after a deadly explosion damaged the Crimean Bridge. Moscow pinned the blame for the truck bombing on Ukrainian military intelligence and stated that it was just the most recent Ukrainian attempt to damage civilian infrastructure in Russia.
The airstrikes have significantly degraded the Ukrainian energy system, forcing operators to introduce rolling blackouts. The head of the electricity provider of Kiev Region warned this week that, in some areas, scheduled outages may need to be replaced with scheduled periods of service due to worsening shortages.