MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine attacked a heating and power station in the Moscow region with drones on Sunday, causing a huge fire and cutting off heat for thousands of people, in one of Kiev’s biggest attacks to date on a power station in the Russian countryside.
In the fourth year of Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s electricity and heating infrastructure, while Kiev has so far focused mainly on trying to knock out Russia’s oil refineries and gas pipelines.
But in the early hours of Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck the Shatura power plant, about 120 km east of the Kremlin, Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said.
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Video footage on Telegram showed flames and black smoke rising into the night sky from the power station. Reuters was able to confirm the location but not the date of the video.
‘Some of the drones were destroyed by air defense forces. Several fell on the station’s territory. There was a fire in the premises,’ said Vorobyov.
Vorobyov said backup power had been switched on and mobile heating systems were being deployed in the area where the temperature was close to freezing.
‘All efforts are being made to promptly restore heat supply,’ Vorobyov declared. The city of Shatura has a population of around 33,000.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
