Energy infrastructure in five regions across Ukraine was damaged in the latest Russian attack, Ukrainian officials said on June 1, causing injuries and prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to appeal for the delivery of more air defenses.
Energy facilities were damaged in the eastern Donetsk and southeastern Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as the central Kyrovohrad and western Ivano-Frankivsk regions, Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenerho said.
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"This morning the Russians launched another strike on Ukrainian energy facilities. Since March it is already the sixth massive, complex missile and drone attack against civilian energy infrastructure," Ukrenerho said.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy-generating company, said that during the attack two of its thermal power plants had been hit and equipment "seriously damaged." It did not specify where those facilities were.
"Russia's main goal is to normalize terror, to use the lack of sufficient air defense and determination of Ukraine's partners," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Partners know exactly what is needed. Additional 'Patriots' and other modern air-defense systems for Ukraine. To accelerate and expand F-16 deliveries to Ukraine. To provide our soldiers with all the necessary capabilities."
Russia has increased its bombing of Ukrainian civilian energy infrastructure since March, destroying much of the country's thermal and hydropower capacity, causing blackouts and pushing electricity imports to record highs.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said 12 people, including eight children, were hospitalized after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering.
Synyehubov also said the death toll had risen to seven from a Russian air strike on an apartment building in the city of Kharkiv on May 31.
The Lviv region's governor, Maksym Kozytskiy, said four people were injured and three critical infrastructure facilities were hit in the region on Ukraine's border with Poland. He gave no further details.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that air defenses had shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 drones.
"Russian terrorists do not abandon their intention to destroy the fuel and energy sector of the country. The air force and the defense forces of Ukraine are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from achieving its goals on every part of the front," the air force commander, General Mykola Oleshchuk, said.
Regional officials reported that firefighters were extinguishing fires on several sites following the strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The fresh Russian strikes come two days after U.S. President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use U.S. munitions to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, which Russia has targeted in recent weeks with artillery strikes from its territory.
Speaking to RFE/RL on May 31 in Prague on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the shift in policy was "legitimate." as Ukraine defends itself.
SEE ALSO: Stoltenberg More Confident About Ukraine's Ability To Defend Kharkiv After Policy Shift On WeaponsUntil now, Ukrainian forces had been unable to strike Russian forces massing in Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons, because of concerns by the United States and some of Ukraine's other Western allies that doing so would escalate the war.
"The right of self-defense also includes the right to strike targets on the territory of the aggressor. And that's exactly what Ukraine must be able to do," Stoltenberg said.