Ukraine has struck a thermal power plant in the Moscow region with drones, causing a large fire and cutting off heating for thousands of people, Reuters reports.
This is one of Kiev's largest attacks yet on a power plant located deep inside Russia.
In the fourth year of Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, Russia has been destroying Ukraine's electricity and heat infrastructure, and until now Kiev has focused mainly on its attempts to destroy Russian oil refineries, crude oil terminals and pipelines. Early this morning, however, Ukrainian drones hit the Shatura power plant, about 120 km east of the Kremlin, said Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov.
"Some of the drones were destroyed by air defense forces. Several fell on the territory of the station. A fire broke out in the facility," he reported.
Vorobyov said that backup power was turned on and mobile heating systems were deployed in the area, where the temperature is around freezing point.
"Every effort is being made to quickly restore the heat supply," he assured. The city of Shatura has a population of about 33,000.
A local resident explained that there was no heating. Three transformers at the power plant caught fire.
Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
In recent weeks and months, there have been repeated power and heating outages in parts of Ukraine due to Russian attacks. Kiev has sought to undermine Russia's military economy by targeting its oil revenues.
Ukraine has also struck some power plants and heating installations in Ukrainian areas controlled by Russian forces, as well as in Russian regions neighboring Ukraine. However, it has so far not caused serious damage to power plants and heating plants serving Moscow and the surrounding region, which has a population of more than 22 million people.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down 75 Ukrainian drones, 36 of which were over the Black Sea and several over the Moscow region. Russia's Vnukovo airport suspended flights for about an hour today before resuming them.
The "Shatura" power plant, one of the oldest in Russia, was founded under Vladimir Lenin after the Bolshevik Revolution and used to run on peat. It now uses mostly natural gas.