Russia pounds Ukraine energy sites in latest 'mass' attack

Russian attacks damaged a Ukrainian power plant and several energy facilities overnight, Kyiv said on Thursday, the latest in a series of strikes that have pushed its power grid to the brink.

Targeted missile and drone attacks over recent months have crippled Ukrainian electricity generation capacity, and forced Kyiv to impose blackouts and import supplies from European Union states.

"The enemy attacked a number of energy infrastructure facilities," the energy ministry said, adding that the Russian projectiles targeted sites in four regions, including near the city of Kyiv.

AFP journalists in the capital heard air raid sirens ringing out over Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday.

The largest private energy company in Ukraine, DTEK, said the attacks caused "serious damage" at one of its plants, without disclosing its location.

"This is already the seventh mass attack on the company's thermal power plant in the last three months," the company said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that those barrages had halved generation capacity in the war-battered country compared to one year ago.

He has urged Ukraine's allies to send more air defence systems to protect the country's vital infrastructure.

- 'Crisis this winter' -

DTEK's CEO Maxim Timchenko echoed the calls for more military aid, and said the power plant struck early on Thursday had already been damaged in a previous attack.

"We urgently need to close our skies or Ukraine faces a serious crisis this winter. My plea to allies is to help us defend our energy system and rebuild in time," he said.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin on the latest barrage but Moscow says its forces do not target civilian infrastructure.

The Russian defence ministry has, however, acknowledged retaliatory attacks on energy sites in response to a wave of Ukrainian cross-border attacks on Russian oil facilities, mainly storage sites.

In the latest Ukrainian attack on Russian territory, the governor of the Krasnodar region -- near Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula -- announced one woman had been killed in a drone attack targeting oil facilities.

Among the areas struck was the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Krasnodar region, where the woman was killed, governor Venyamin Kondratyev said.

The Russian defence ministry said it had downed 15 Ukrainian drones that also targeted oil storage depots in the southern Adygea republic and in the Tambov region.

A source in the Ukrainian security services told AFP drones deployed by the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) were behind attacks in the two Russian regions.

"These facilities processed and stored raw materials and finished products, which were later used by the Russian army," the source said, vowing more attacks on Russian oil facilities, with the aim of denting the Kremlin's war chest.

- 'Critical infrastructure' -

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched nine missiles and 27 Iranian-designed attack drones, and that air defence systems had downed all the projectiles except four missiles.

It said air defence systems were also activated in the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Kyiv, among others.

The energy ministry said a total of seven employees at energy facilities had been wounded and that more than 200,000 people had been temporarily cut off in the Vinnytsia region.

"There will be no outages for critical infrastructure companies," it added.

Russia has meanwhile stepped up fatal artillery attacks on embattled frontline regions in the south and east of Ukraine.

The governor of the southern Kherson region announced on Thursday morning that two people had been killed and three wounded in recent Russian attacks.

In Kharkiv, a northeastern region where Russia recently launched a surprise ground offensive, the governor said one woman had been killed by Russian fire.

And in the eastern Donetsk region, the governor said two people had been killed, including one in the frontline town of Toretsk, where Russian forces have gained ground after a long lull in fighting there.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces were trying to dislodge its troops from the nearby villages of Shumy and New York.

EU hits LNG sector in fresh sanctions

EU states on Thursday signed off on a fresh package of sanctions against Russia targeting its lucrative liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector for the first time, officials said.

The new measures -- which should be formally adopted on Monday -- are aimed at further choking off Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort against Ukraine.

"This hard-hitting package will further deny Russia access to key technologies," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.

"It will strip Russia of further energy revenues and tackle Putin's shadow fleet and shadow banking network abroad."

Diplomats said the latest sanctions -- the 14th round imposed on Moscow by the EU since the 2022 invasion -- includes a ban on the transshipment of Russian LNG via Europe.

They do not include a prohibition on the purchase of Russian LNG by EU countries.

European ports matter for Russia since the continent offers a key route for LNG exports from frozen Arctic ports to Asian markets in winter months.

Ports in Belgium, France, The Netherlands and Spain are the main points for LNG deliveries from Russia's Siberian Yamal Peninsula.

The Belgian port of Zeebrugge and the French port of Montoir are especially important hubs for re-exports to countries such as China, Taiwan or Turkey.

Also included in the package are measures aimed at making it more difficult for Russia to use a "shadow fleet" of vessels with obscured origins to get around EU sanctions on Russian crude oil.

The EU is in addition hitting Moscow's SPFS bank messaging system, used by Russia to try to ease the impact of being cut off by the West from the global SWIFT financial transfer system.

Agreement on the latest package of sanctions was held up by Germany as it pushed to water down obligations on EU firms to prevent the re-export of their sanctioned products to Russia via third countries.

The EU is looking to clamp down on the flow of goods that can be used on the battlefield, such as microchips, through countries including former Soviet states neighbouring Russia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Diplomats said several more Chinese firms accused of aiding Russia's military were also being added to a blacklist preventing EU firms from trading with them.

Restrictions were also being placed on political parties, think tanks and media providers accepting money from Russia, to try to curb alleged meddling by Moscow.