MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Russia has enough capacities to completely destroy Ukraine’s power grid if it wants to, Zaporozhye Region Governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
"We haven’t begun anything yet, as our president once said," he said. "Our neo-Nazi opponents should get accustomed to the thought that we have enough manpower and equipment to completely wipe out Ukraine’s <…> energy infrastructure. I’m saying this as a military pilot who was trained to destroy [an enemy’s] industrial potential, as a pilot of the strategic missile-carrying aviation."
On March22, Russian forces delivered a massive retaliatory strike by precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against Ukrainian energy and military-industrial sites, disorganizing the country's arms industry and eliminating foreign military hardware. In particular, explosions were reported in Dnepr, Ivano-Frankovsk, Kiev, Krivoy Rog, and Sumy as well as the Khmelnitsky region and the Kiev-controlled areas of the Zaporozhye Region.
At least 15 blasts occurred in Kharkov, with almost the whole of the city showing power loss. In addition, Internet disruptions have been reported across the country. Later, many regions reported damage to their vital infrastructure, including power generation facilities. A fire broke out at the country’s largest hydroelectric power plant - the Dnepr HPP.
According to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, blackouts were reported in eight Ukrainian regions and the Kiev-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye Region.